Beach FAXcation
by Flight at Midnight
Summary: Max has never liked the beach. Hopefully, that'll change with this vacation. However, it won't happen if the Flock doesn't stop plotting for Fang to use the L-word, Max's embarrassment never ceases, and this looming threat doesn't disappear. FAX, Pre-FANG
1. The Bikini Set Up Part 1

**A/N: Flight at Midnight here. I just decided to try a Faxy two-shot where the Flock goes to the beach for vacation. What mischief will the Flock cause for Max? Well, read to find out!**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing! James Patterson owns all of Maximum Ride! If you recognize it, it's not mine!**

* * *

**Max POV**

Well, this is exciting. The fantastic, original, stupendous bird-kids are stuck on VACATION. What we should be doing is helping in saving the world. But nooooo. The rest of the Flock, well, except for Fang, and my mom thought we needed a vacation. I mean, yea, vacations are fun, but the BEACH?

The beach. There is nothing more sexist than the beach. Girls exposing themselves to get attention? No thank you. Not for me, Maximum Ride. I'd rather be up in the sky, flying my bird-kid heart out, than wearing a bikini, having chauvinistic pigs drool over me. Gross. So you can imagine my delight when I heard we were going to the beach. Not.

The Flock arrived with my mom, Dr. Valencia Martinez, and my half-sister Ella, at the beach-front house we rented for the trip an hour ago, and I am now checking out my room. We miraculously got an eight-roomed house, so we can all have a room to ourselves.

I was also wondering what would happen when we were at the beach with bathing suits on, and our freakin' WINGS are sticking out of our backs, what people would do. My mom assured us in the car, though, when I asked her this, that we would be on a private beach right outside of the house, so few to no people would see us. I wasn't so reassured, though.

After in my head mapping all possible escape routes for my room to the exits in the house if the windows were blocked, and I couldn't just FLY, I decided to leave my room and find out what we were doing. I really hoped that the beach wasn't much involved.

* * *

"I have so much to tell you," my half-sister Ella was saying to me. "So much has happened at school that I have to tell!" I smiled. Ella was the best half-sister you could ever ask for. She was so nice and understanding, but brave too. Ella was now catching me up while everyone was getting ready for the - you guessed it - beach.

My mom had even gotten all of us bathing suits. We were all taking turns getting ready in the three bathrooms. So far, my mom, Nudge, and the Gasman had gotten changed, and now we were waiting for Angel, Iggy, and Fang to finish getting changed so that Ella and I could.

The Gasman looked excited in his lime greenish bathing suit. He had never actually owned a bathing suit before, so this was a first for him. Nudge also looked equally excited in her bright yellow bathing suit, which was, to my disapproval, a bikini. My mom better not have bought me one. Nudge said she felt like a model. Next, Angel and Iggy came out from their respective bathrooms. Iggy had a light blue bathing suit on, and Angel had a cute pink six year-olds tankini.

Ella continued talking about school. "We had another dance, and Shaw asked me to dance. It was amazing." She went on talking, but I didn't hear a word after that. This was because Fang came out of his bathroom.

He looked... hot (there, I said it) in his black bathing suit. My jaw almost dropped. Fang noticed me staring, and smirked at me. He mouthed something along the lines of take a picture, it'll last longer. Grrrrrr. I lo- like him and all, but sometimes… I still like him. Just then, my mom came over to Ella, who hadn't noticed my distraction, and me.

"It's your girls' turn to get changed," she said cheerily, handing Ella a plastic bag I assumed contained both of our bathing suits.

"You guys don't have to wait for us," Ella told her mom. "We'd feel bad making you wait. You guys go to the beach without us. We'll catch up in a few minutes." Our mom agreed, and she and the Flock left for the beach, which I was glad of so I could change out of my bathing suit if I hated it.

"Hey, so I can finish telling you my story, how about you get changed in the shower, and I will get changed outside of it?" Ella asked me, and I agreed. I felt bad that I had spaced earlier. We headed off to the bathroom.

()()()()()()()()

I hopped into the shower and closed the curtain, waiting for Ella to pass me my suit. I was dearly hoping it was at least a backless one-piece, so my wings could fit. I had to wait, however, for my suit because Ella was changing into hers first while telling her story before giving me mine, for some reason. I decided to at least get ready, so I took off my clothes and threw them out into the rest of the bathroom, and waited for my bathing suit.

"And then I had my first kiss, at the end of the dance. It was AH-mazing," Ella concluded. "Alright, so I'm done. If it's okay with you, I am going to go down to the beach now. Oh, and here's your suit. Bye!" Ella said, throwing the bag in at me. Finally. I heard her close the door, and I took the bathing suit out of the bag.

Oh my freakin' gosh. I am going to kill my mom.

It is a bikini. But not just any bikini. It's pretty much a STRING bikini. I mean, it's a cool blue, but it's still a STRING BIKINI. I am going to get into my clothes, go to the beach, and yell at my mom for wasting money on something she knows I won't wear.

I poked my head outside of the shower curtain to see where I threw my clothes, but I couldn't find them. Suddenly, everything clicked. Ella got changed with me so she could take my clothes, and so I would have to wear the bikini, knowing that I don't have any other clothes. I am going to kill Ella too. My mom and she plotted so I would have to look like a girl. Aren't members of your family supposed to want you to dress MODESTLY?

I couldn't just stay in the shower all day, though. I had to be with the Flock, in case anything happens. I really hope my mom and Ella are ready to take cover.

I sighed and put on the bathing suit. It actually fit me perfectly, even with the wings. Go figure. I stepped out of the shower, and looked at myself in the mirror. I nearly died. I looked like one of those girls from Playboy - well, when they actually wear clothes, and not as gorgeously fake. I almost got back into the shower to stay there all day until they came back.

But then I just had to remember what usually happens when I leave the Flock. Someone gets kidnapped, hurt, nearly drowns, etc., etc. So I took a deep breath, and left the bathroom, making sure not to look into the mirror. Then it hit me: I could just borrow some of the older Flock's clothing!

I rushed to Fang's room; there was no clothing in there. I went to Iggy's room; nothing in there either. I checked everyone's room - no one had clothes that I could borrow! They were all in the plan. Or at least, some of them were, and had just taken the other members of the Flock's clothing too. They're going to get it when I see them.

I then left the house, after throwing some sun block on myself, since nothing was on me to protect me from the sun. Well, here goes nothing.

()()()()()()()()

I saw the Flock, Ella, and my mom about 30 yards away as I stepped out of the beach house, sliding the door closed and locking it behind me. All of their backs were turned to me. I silently made my way over to them, getting ready to explode on my mom and sister. My mom was right- we were the only ones on the beach for a few while, and it was a sunny, clear day.

As I got closer, I noticed that Gazzy and Angel were already in the ocean, while my mom and Iggy were sitting in beach chairs, Fang standing just standing there, looking illegally good, and Nudge and Ella lying on a beach blanket, reading what was most likely a teenage magazine. Eventually, I was about ten feet away from everyone. So, they would know I was unhappily here, I cleared my throat irritably. They all turned around to see who it was.

They stared at me. I felt my face going red. Did I really look that bad? Even Iggy was staring at me, and he's BLIND. Fang looked like he didn't know me, and like he just got hit by a car. I started to get ticked.

"What?" I asked them furiously. "What's wrong?" Finally, Nudge spoke up.

"ZOMG, MAX?! You look totally hot," Nudge said, and I felt myself grow even redder, if that was possible. Did I really look like one of those girls I was ranting about earlier, who ENJOYED having chauvinistic pigs drool over them? Great, just great. Thanks, mom, Ella, and whoever in the Flock was also part of this plan. I then noticed that my mom was beaming at me.

"You look wonderful, honey," she said to me happily. I glared at her.

"Totally," Ella said in addition. I glared at her too.

"I will be speaking to you two later about this," I whispered crossly to them.

"I think you look great," Iggy said then chuckled at his own joke. I glared at him, but the look was lost. Ella gave a short laugh. I then noticed that Fang still hadn't said anything. I glanced at him, and saw that he was still kind of slack-jawed, and was staring at me. I threw him a confused What? look. He just shook his head slowly, like a dog trying to get water out of its ears.

Did I look really bad to him? I didn't care what everyone else thought, but my... and this is new for me to say, but boyfriend? I kind of do care what he thinks.

Ugh. This was going to be a long day.


	2. The Bikini Set Up Part 2

**A/N: Hey guys! Before I start off, I just want to say thanks to all who reviewed. Who knows? Maybe once I get my review thing unblocked on my laptop, I'll review your stories too ;D Actually, more than maybe, because know I will review! So that's an incentive to review, for all of you people out there who read this but didn't review!**

**_Reviewers_ (sorry if I missed anyone- you are still appreciated!):**

**TheRealNudge: Wow, you are my first reviewer. *huggles* Thanks so much! Oh and thanks for the concrit. I have this weird thing of switching up the past and present tenses with my verbs :P It's a pain. Sorry if I didn't fix it all. Also, I hope this is more descriptive. Thanks a million!**

**KyKy123: Thanks! I will!**

**nm-maximumride4eva: I'm updating as I type! Thanks, and I hope this chapter is to your liking as well :)**

**Kay: Hm... make it longer? We'll see what other readers think. If more agree, I probably will! Thanks for the feedback!**

**orange. polish: Thanks :) I hoped that people would like it**

**Now, here's the final part! However, I did get a review asking to make this into a story, so what do you guys think? Review and tell me please!**

**_Disclamer_: I do not, nor will I ever (sadly) own Maximum Ride. It's all James Patterson's.**

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When Gazzy and Angel came out of the water to see what everyone was staring at, they stared too.

"Max?" the Gasman asked incredulously, while shaking his head. He was either trying to get rid of water in his ears, or the horrible image of me in a bikini out of his mind. I secretly hoped the former.

"Max, you look so pretty," Angel said happily, shaking out her angelic-white wings of residue water.

"Do I have to go through this again?" I asked, still feeling irritable. They shrugged their shoulders, and went back into the water.

I noticed that Angel had gotten some dolphins to come with her powers. I hope she wasn't taking advantage of them. We don't need another visit from PETA after that little bomb experiment Gazzy tried involving some friendly woodland creatures.

Ella, Nudge, Iggy, and my mom followed the Gasman and Angel back to the water. Then, it was just Fang and me left. I sat down on the beach towel where Ella previously was, trying hard not to stare at Fang. I pulled my knees up to my chest and stared out into the ocean. I then felt a thud next to me, and knew that Fang had flopped himself down on the other towel next to me. He sat with his legs out, leaning backwards and enjoying the sun.

"I think you look hot," Fang said so quietly, I could barely hear what he had said. When I did register what he said, though, my insides swelled up in emotion, and I felt myself go red again. I was going to look like a lobster by the end of the day, sun or no sun.

But really, frick. I mean, I thought it was sexist, but at the same time sweet. Grrrrrr my feminism mixed with hormones. It makes everything so confusing.

"You too," I mumbled, barely believing my ears. Did I really just give up my feminism to please a guy? Uh-uh, that's not good. It is Fang though… And now I want to kiss him, but I don't feel the most comfortable with my mom in viewing range.

Isn't it weird how I always wanted parents, and now that I have a mom I want her to leave? Anyway, we just chilled there, while doing the occasional 360o, and watching the rest of the Flock play in the ocean.

)()()()()()()

Everyone but Fang and I were still down at the water a half an hour later. In that time, we hadn't said much, but enjoyed just being in each other's company. I was leaning back on my elbows with my legs out and keeping my wings in tight, like Fang, and doing 360o checks everywhere, in case M-Geeks or some other sort of enemy was around, waiting to attack. It was then that we saw some teenage boys, maybe around sixteen, walking down the beach.

They were coming walking from the south, and going north. In other words, they were coming in from our right and walking out on our left. They seemed to be glancing over to Fang and me, and then talking to each other. Then when they were walking past us, about seven feet away, they stopped, and turned towards us. Now what?

I noticed that they didn't look half-bad, though. You know, the type of surfer/life guard guy that girls usually go for, with the tans and golden hair and muscles and whatever. Blech. No offense if you look like that, though.

"Hey," said the boy on the left, the taller one, to me. I tensed up, and felt Fang do so too next to me.

I wondered if these guys were a majorly improved M-Geek, coming to kill us with their thick hair. Blech again.

"I'm Trey, and this is my friend Chad. We were wondering if you would like to ditch your loser friend and hang with us at this wild party tonight."

It was at this point that Fang jumped up, and I started going red once again. Trey and Chad took no notice, though.

"We don't ask just anyone, you know. We look for the hottest babe on the beach, and we've gotta say, babe, it is definitely you. By a long shot," Chad added.

NOW I was angry. There are few things more chauvinistic than a guy calling a girl "babe." And where do they come off saying stuff like that to a random girl? I was about to shoot them down, and maybe beat them up, but Fang beat me to the punch.

"Listen," I heard Fang say menacingly, which is pretty scary if I do say so myself. No one messes with Fang. Trey and Chad turned pale under their tans. "No one talks to her like that. No one. And Max, this girl you are trying to persuade to go with you to your 'wild' party, is MY girlfriend. So lay off."

Whoa. I mean, yea, claiming girls is sexist and all, but it kind of melted my heart. What is this bikini doing to me? First it got these boys' attention, and now I was turning into a damsel? I have got to get another bathing suit.

Trey and Chad recovered after a brief moment. Then Chad spoke.

"Who's to say she wouldn't ditch YOU for US?" he asked meanly.

It was at that point that Fang whipped out his amazing, black wings, which, if I do say so myself, they are very impressive.

The wings really scared the guys, as they hadn't seen them while walking towards us, and they ran away down the beach, screaming like girls. I laughed hard, and Fang sat down after folding his wings back in.

No one down at the water noticed what just went on.

)()()()()()

"I could have just told them no, you know," I told Fang jokingly after a few minutes of silence. But he still looked pretty ticked.

"As soon as they stopped, I knew it was to ask you to do something with them. And the way they talked to you, like you were just some girl who would do anything with them just because they're them."

Wow, I didn't know Fang could get jealous.

"They were so boneheaded. Trey. Chad. What type of names are they?" Well, then again, what type of name is Fang? But I didn't say anything, and Fang silently blew some steam off.

Eventually, the Flock, my mom, and Ella came back from the water.

"Look at all of the shells we got," Angel said excitedly, and dumped tons of shells onto the sand in front of me.

"We want to paint them," Ella said cheerfully, flipping her long, dark hair out of her face, since it was plastered to her face from the ocean water.

"And make them into jewelry," Nudge added wringing her equally dark hair out onto the sand.

"Did you two do anything while we were gone?" Iggy wiggled his eyebrows suggestively, and my mom looked momentarily appalled, but then loosened up when she saw Iggy burst into a peal of laughter at his own pe rverted joke.

I was seriously ticked, and I knew Fang was too from the way his jaw clenched. I'd have to deal with Iggy later, when my mom wasn't around to stop me from slugging him in the face.

Meanwhile, everyone was gibbering away and having a good time, but all I really wanted to do was get out of this bathing suit and be alone with Fang.

Then, almost as if he was reading my mind, like Angel does ALL THE TIME, in case she is listening now (I just saw you smile, Angel), Fang spoke up.

"Hey, Max, do you want to go for a walk down the beach?" I agreed, and we got up from our spots and started walking down the beach, in the opposite direction from where the surfer guys came. I then realized that if guys were into me, surely girls would be into Fang.

Uh-oh. I don't want there to be another Red-Haired Wonder floating around here. Now that I think about it, I am seeing a lot of googly-eyed girls of all different hair colors staring at us. Grrrrrr. And is that a grandmother I see ogling Fang? I shivered. Creeper. The wings tucked into our backs also didn't help much in the Not Drawing Attention category.

But a second later, I didn't care as much, because as our hands were swinging back and forth while walking, Fang grabbed my hand and held it. I felt all of my nerves go off, and it was incredible. His rough, callused hand in my equally rough and callused hand felt… right. Like it should always be there.

Then, Fang started pulling me over a little water-smoothed cave that was just off of the beach, covered with scrawling graffiti and gossip of the small beach town we were in. It probably used to be a regular, rough, and shallow cave, but then the coming and going of the high tides hollowed, deepened, and smoothed it out to make the cave the way it is now.

When we got inside, I said, "Good thing you brought us in here. I was about to beat up some of those girls looking at you."

I then realized that was how Fang felt about those guys, but he probably felt worse because they actually tried to make a move on me. Ouch. Fang just looked at me like, _Well, that's what happened to me_.

Fang then said, "I didn't bring us in here because of that." What did he mean by that? I understood what he meant, though, when he pulled me closer to him, put his hands on my waist, and kissed me.

I, being the blibbering idiot when it comes to anything other than fighting, stood in momentary shock. I then came to my electrically charged senses, and put my arms around his neck.

We stood there and kissed for what I wish was hours, enjoying being in each other's presence. It did feel a little awkward for me, though, seeing as I was only in a bikini and pressed up against a wonderfully shirtless Fang.

Eventually Fang and I, albeit unwillingly, broke apart. We stood there with our arms still around each other, looking at each other contentedly. The gold glints in his dark eyes sucked me in. To break away from the spell of his eyes, I put my head on his chest, and realized that he had, again, grown taller.

Then, Fang spoke. It seems he's been doing that a lot more lately.

"Seeing those guys flirt with you today made me realize something. I want you to know that I care about you. More than anyone else ever can or will. Because people, like those guys, will try to tell you otherwise. But I lo- like you. And I will not let anyone else take you from being with me."

Wow. That was a really long statement, coming from Fang. And a really sweet one. Oh god, get me out of this bathing suit before I start chasing after every boy I see.

"I care about you too," I told Fang, not lifting my head from his chest. "And trust me, those girls won't even be able to get to you if I have anything to do with it." Fang then rested his head on top of mine, and we just stood there for a few minutes.

We then headed back to the rest of the Flock. I have a feeling that the rest of the trip might not be so bad.

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**R&R? Remember to review and tell me if you want to make this longer! Also, concrit is much appreciated. Even flames, just to tell me what to improve.**


	3. Hide & Go Seek, Flock Style

**A/N: Wow, guys. I got a lot of great feedback on extending this into a story. I figured if the people want it, then they should get it! Thanks so much for all of the positive reviews! However, keep reviewing, because reviews give me motivation to keep writing, and to post faster! :D Also, concrit is much appreciated. **

**I hope I don't make the story suck-ish by extending it. Tell me if you think something should be different, or if you see a major plothole (I'm bad at picking them up!). Also, tell me if you guys have any ideas. I might use them!**

**Thanks to everyone who reviewed, favorited, and alerted!**

**Flight at Midnight**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing! Maximum Ride is James Patterson's! And, sadly, so is Fang :(**

* * *

When we got back to the Flock, I was ready to be interrogated by everyone on where Fang and I went. However, rain had started drizzling from the sky by the time we returned. Everyone at first decided to ignore it, until…

BOOM!

There was a flash of lightning, followed by the crackle of thunder that was loud enough to impress the Gasman and Iggy. So, not wanting to end up on the evening news (NEWS FLASH: BIRD KIDS FRIED WHILE ON VACATION – great way to be remembered), we headed back to the house.

It was there that Ella gave me back the clothes that she had stolen from me. Little did she know, though, that revenge was coming her way very soon. Anyone else feel an evil laugh coming on?

Anyway, seeing as the rest of our day was pretty much shot, and it was only 3 in the afternoon, we had to figure out something to do. No one could agree, though, on any movies, games, etc. So, finally, we decided on a Flock favorite – Hide and Seek.

Hide and Seek was a popular game for the Flock back at the E-shaped house, since we were all really good at staying hidden. The only rule was to not leave the house.

We chose Ella to be It, since she has never had the chance to play a game of Hide and Seek with us. And let's just say that a game of Hide and Seek to the Flock is as serious to us as Kanye West is heartless. In other words, very.

So, after we told Ella to count to 200, and "greeted" (in other words, grunted in acknowledgement) Jeb who came to the beach house to see if the Flock was okay, we started the game.

I headed to the perfect place – the laundry room. When I was searching for some clothes earlier, I noticed that there was a good place to hide behind a storage cabinet that would be really hard for Ella to get behind. Yea, she's skinny, but not bird-kid skinny.

When I got there, though, the spot was already taken.

"Move it, Iggy. This is my spot now," I commanded Iggy.

"No, find your own spot, I was here first," he retorted, and turned his back in the small space so I would have trouble getting him out. Looks like I'll have to find a new spot…

I know, I'll try my mom's room.

I hurried upstairs, passing Gazzy at one point, who was attempting to shove himself into a potted plant and hide behind the leaves. That'll work out really well for him. Not.

Once I got into my mom's cream-colored room on the third floor, I heard Ella finish counting downstairs. Quickly, I shoved myself into my mom's closet, which, unluckily, didn't have many clothes in it.

However, before Ella could even come up the stairs, Jeb and my mom entered the room.

What's going on…?

My mom shut the door behind her, and I scooted back so they wouldn't see me in the miniature gap I left open in the closet doors to see out of.

"They are going to get suspicious, Jeb," my mom whispered, and I had to prick my ears up to listen. That's interesting…

"I thought that they were done with all of this fighting and turmoil."

"I know you thought that, Val," Jeb replied, whispering as well, "but I knew better. People are still out there, trying to kill the Flock. We still have to be on guard. This is especially after what almost happened today. If the government hadn't caught the attack in time, who knows what would have happened to Max?"

Someone's trying to kill me? Again? Well, it's not old news, but still. I thought we would be a little safer, at least.

"But we're not going to tell the kids, right? I don't want them to worry," my mom said anxiously, still in a whisper.

"No. They're probably on guard as it is. Unless it gets bad, we won't say anything."

"Good," my mom said, and then there was silence. That's odd. Maybe they left…

I peeked out of the gap in the closet doors, and saw something that is going to be forever imprinted in my mind.

My _mom_ and _Jeb_ were making out. On my mom's bed. Ick. I didn't even know that they like each other.

And now I can hear that suction noise that happens when people make-out.

Now, I have seen and heard a lot of mentally scarring things in my life, especially from the School, but this takes the cake. How do I get out of this? It's so freakin' awkward in this closet. I have to sneak out, before they go, er, any further. I shuddered at that thought.

So, I slowly opened the closet door, and crawled military-style on my stomach. Hopefully my mom and Jeb are too, er, busy to notice me crawling and opening up the bedroom door.

I opened the door as little as I could, and crawled out. My mom and Jeb didn't appear to notice anything – on the contrary. They were going at it even more. I shuddered again, and closed the door.

I was about to go down the steps, when Ella came bounding up.

"Found you Max! Haha now I only have to find Angel, Total, and Fa – Max, what's wrong? You're all pale. Did something happen?"

I shook my head. I didn't need Ella getting her conscious scarred like mine.

"If you're sure then… here, help me find the others now!" Ella said cheerily, and went off.

Alright then, I'm just going to go to the laundry room, find some bleach, and drown myself in it. Yea, that's it…

I headed back into the basement, hoping my mom stocked up on bleach. I almost forgot about the conversation my mom and Jeb had before they – ugh. I decided to tuck it away in the corner of my mind until later, when I wasn't so traumatized.

When I got into the laundry room, I walked over to the closet with all of the cleaning supplies in it. I opened it up, and was about to grab the bleach, when I looked down. Fang was sitting there, under the bottom shelf, crammed into the corner to make himself less visible in case his invisibility didn't kick in.

I grinned at Fang, and opened my mouth to yell to Ella that I found Fang, when Fang covered my mouth, pulled me into the closet, and closed the door with his other hand. So now I was stuck in the closet with Fang.

Well, it's a million times better than getting stuck in a confined space with the Gasman.

"Won't it be interesting when they find us, hm?" I said to Fang, grinning.

"Hopefully it won't be Iggy. We wouldn't hear the end of it if he found us."

Fang had a point. One time Iggy caught me and Fang making-ou – I mean, kissing, and for a week he wouldn't stop asking what Fang and I would name the kids.

"So, Fang, you're in the closet? I didn't know you were like that, especially after kissing me all of those times," I said with a straight face.

Fang glared at me.

"I'm not gay. You of all people would know that, Max," he said impishly. I blushed slightly at that, and I hoped he couldn't see me in the dark of the closet.

I decided to irk him further.

"Are you sure, Fangles? Because I thought I saw you staring at Iggy the other day…" This should be good.

"Oh yea, Miss Maximum? If I were gay, would I do this?" And with that, Fang swept me up into another one of his heart-stopping kisses. It was kind of hard to get into it, as the closet was really small with both of us in it, but we managed.

I threw my arms around his neck, and he was about to put his arms around my waist, when the blinding light from the laundry room flooded the closet.

"I found Fang, Ella!... and Max," Nudge said, after taking a second glance into the closet at us.

Fang and I broke apart as quickly as we could, but Nudge had already seen.

"Nudge, don't you dare say anything," I warned, but it was too late.

"FANG AND MAX WERE MAKING-OUT IN THE CLOSET!"

Frick. This is going to be a long day.

* * *

**Teehee. Poor Max and Fang.**

**R&R?**

**Also, updates could be kind of slow once school starts back. Sorry about that. But don't worry, I will update! It'll just take me a bit longer. I have all honors classes, and I have to get all A's or my scholarship will be taken away :( Sorry, but for me, it is school first. Check my profile for any days of updates, as I will put on there when I will be able to update!**


	4. Who is the Murderer Mishaps

**A/N: Hey everybody! **

**It's the weekend, I don't have a lot of homework, midterms are still a good amount of time away (I'll admit, I panicked!), and I feel like procrastinating on reading about the Inquisition. **

**So. I wrote the next chapter! Appreciate it, guys, because chapters are probably going to be a twice a week thing - possibly three times, if I'm feeling generous and reviews are good! Not to mention whether or not my teachers don't drown me in work, and how many chapters I can get done in a weekend. **

**Anywho, enjoy this chapter - it's in Fang's POV, so a bit of a change up for me!**

**Also, concrit is much appreciated. Almost as much as reviews! :D You guys have been stellar! **

**Oh, and I must admit, the whole Jeb/Dr. Martinez thing creeped me out too XD It actually happened though, to my friend! She was scarred for life. Oh, and although it doesn't seem like it, that will have a part in the upcoming plot. So, as much as you don't want to, keep it in mind ;D**

**Disclaimer: Maximum Ride, I own not.**

* * *

**Fang POV**

Well, after what will from now on be referred to as "The Closet Incident," the Flock played many more rounds of Hide and Seek, only ending when Gazzy had one of his, er, gas attacks, and stunk up the whole ground floor and second floor, leaving only Dr. M's room and Ella's room up on the third floor safe.

So. Seeing as most of the upper floors were officially poisonous, and it was now night, torrentially raining, and dark, the Flock decided to play another Flock favorite – Who is the Murderer.

"How'd you play?" Ella asked curiously.

"You mean you've never played before?!" the Gasman asked, aghast.

Ella shook her head no. Her head shake kind of reminded me of Total the time we dropped him into the garbage can "on accident," and he got fleas and couldn't stop shaking his head for a week.

Total. Believe it or not, I miss the little guy. He's off right now, planning his freaking dog wedding with Akila. I mean, really. A dog wedding?

Nudge, being the chatterbox she is, decided to inform Ella of the whole game in a matter of 20 seconds – I counted.

"Well, everyone chooses a piece of paper from a hat. Everyone gets 'person,' except for two people. One person gets the 'Murderer' slip of paper designating them as the one who kills a "person", and another gets the 'Detective' paper, making them the detective. You don't tell anybody what you get, except for the detective. Then, the Detective goes to turn out the light to make everything super duper dark, and everyone else walks around the room, unable to see, which is really creeptacular. Oh, and FYI, even though the Flock's engineered to see everything in the dark better, none of us can see if there isn't a tiny light source to go by, so we can't have any light filtering through anywhere!

"Then, everyone is waiting for the murderer to grab someone. Once a person is grabbed, they scream and make their death however they want it to be – I personally like screaming at the top of my lungs!

"Anyway, everyone, except for the now-murder victim who is lying on the floor, runs to a wall, and the detective turns the lights back on. It is then the victim's job to guess who murdered them in three tries.

"Usually Iggy is the best at this game, since he can recognize all of our heartbeats and footsteps if he was murdered. Oh, and we can't use powers, because Angel would always win! Then, once the victim either guesses right or wrong, the group can start a new round by picking new people again!" Nudge finished up, nearly breathless.

The Flock likes this game because we are all at a disadvantage in the dark, and it helps us become stealthier.

So, as we were already in the windowless basement, and we chose papers from Angel's green hat.

"I got detective!" Ella exclaimed once she opened her slip of paper up. She then ran up the basement stairs, waiting for us to tell her to turn the lights off.

I know everyone else got person, because I got Murderer.

I love being the Murderer, because I'm so ninja-quiet, no one can tell when I am coming to "murder" them.

"Turn 'em off," Max yelled to Ella, and we were plunged into an eerie darkness, using our other senses to guide us.

We were all silent while walking around the wide expanse of room, waiting for someone to be grabbed.

I heard someone breathing at 6 o'clock. I decided the person would be my victim.

I headed toward them blindly and silently, my arm stretched out. Once I got to the person, I grabbed the shoulder of this shorter person, who was probably Nudge from the height of their shoulder. The shoulder was surprisingly soft, not at all bony like I thought one of the Flock's would be. I waited for the person to scream so I could hightail it to the wall.

They did scream after a moment. And punch me in the face.

It hurt like he- ck. I heard everyone scrambling to the wall. I couldn't however, as my victim was continuing to beat the crap out of me for no apparent reason.

Ella turned on the light and started running down the basement steps, stopping when she saw my revealed victim, Max, beating me to a pulp.

Why was heck she doing this? It was part of the game for me to grab her shoulder!

Wait a second... Everything clicked in my head: Why Max was so angry, why she was beating me up, why her shoulder was lower than usual, and why it was so soft.

Holy frick, I must have groped Max on accident! I swear it was an accident too!

It explains why I thought her boob was Nudge's shoulder, since Nudge is a little shorter than Max is.

Wow. I got to second base on accident. But now Max is pissed at me. A win and a loss... I'm way to hormonal for my own good.

I tried to defend myself, but Max was _ticked_. And there is no stopping an angry Max. I think even Chuck Norris would have some problems against her.

"You," a punch to the gut, "stupid," punch to the face, "pig," she finished with another blow to the head. Scratch that. Chuck Norris has nothing against Max.

"How dare you touch me like that!" she yelled at me, the rest of the Flock pulling her off of me with difficulty.

I gulped. It would be hard to get her to calm down now.

"Max," I started seriously when she had calmed down enough, "I swear it was an accident. I had no clue it was you. I thought you were Nudge!"

Ooh. That came out wrong.

"So you were trying to grope NUDGE?!" Max screeched at me. I saw the rest of the Flock creeping up the steps slowly, as Max wasn't trying to kill me anymore, just yelling.

Nudge looked faintly disgruntled.

"No, I meant I thought it was Nudge's shoulder," I said, but Max still glared at me. I heard the basement door shut, and I knew the rest of the Flock left me to die.

Thanks guys, real nice.

"Max," I said softly, trying to calm her down. I stepped a little closer to her, and I saw her eyes narrow a bit.

"I swear, I completely respect you, and I would never do that to you on purpose without your consent," I continued. Alright, Max was softening a bit now. Her posture didn't show it, but her eyes gave her away.

"It was a total accident, I swear. I'm sorry, too." Although it _was_ nice. I didn't add that in, though. Then, I would be back to being beaten into a feathery pulp.

Max bit her lip.

"You swear?" she asked, tentatively. I must have really freaked her out.

"Swear," I said.

Max grinned, took a few short steps, and kissed me on the lips.

Internally smiling from ear to ear for being forgiven for my pervish mistake, I put my arms around Max and kissed her back.

It was blissful, her mouth under mine, our lips moving together.

Eventually, Max pulled away.

"If you ever do it again without –" she paused, unsure what to say, "erm, me telling you could, accident or not, you are dead. Got that?" she said, smiling. I saw her in her eyes that she meant it though. I gulped.

"Got it," I said, and pulled her in for another kiss.

So far, I think I am liking this vacation.

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**Like it? Love it? Absolutely hate it? Tell me in a review!**

**Oh, and question: Eggy or Niggy? Or none?**

**Ah, Fang and his hormonal ways. I was grinning from ear to ear writing this chapter. You should have seen me, too, when I thought of this idea. I was at lunch, the idea popped into my head, and I grabbed for my notebook and started writing like there was no tomorrow. I was laughing insanely, and my friends were like WTH? Good times XD**

**On a random side note, did you know that, according to howmanyofme .com, there are 22 people in the U.S. named Mary Sue? Creeptastic.**

**Also, PM me if you have any questions!**

**R&R? Please? Por favor? (gotta start studying for that Spanish midterm!)**

**Flight at Midnight**


	5. The Return of Trey and Chad

**A/N: Hey guys! I felt really bad that I haven't gotten a chapter up in a while, not to mention you've all been so wonderful with reviewing, so I decided to take some time off from my humongous pile of homework and update! Wooh!**

**I just want to say THANK YOU! to everyone who has read, alerted, favorited, and especially reviewed. I feel so fuzzy inside when I see how many people have been actually reading and liking this :D**

**The next update will most likely be Friday. It might change, though, so check my profile for any news on when I will update.**

**Oh, sorry if this chapter has a little less quality than usual. It was a TAD bit rushed. But I think it turned out pretty well, anyway. Not to mention I really wanted to get it up :D**

**Also, continue to review guys! Seriously, it gives me motivation to type. Here's a little known fact: I really hate writing. I love thinking the ideas, but when it comes to putting them down on paper or in a computer, I absolutely loathe it. So, reviews give me the motivation to type and update faster!**

**Disclaimer: I do not, nor will I ever, own Maximum Ride. It's all James Patterson's.**

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**Max POV**

After a goodnight's sleep in a warm, safe bed (or not so safe, according to what Jeb told (shudder) Mom), the rain had finally let up. Sure, the sand outside of the beach house didn't need any water to make it into a sand castle, but at least we could leave the house and not play anymore… games.

Last night's Who is the Murderer? game was, to say the least, interesting. After mine and Fang's little "incident," everyone decided to play cards in the basement for the rest of the night, just in case the next game Fang really did grope Nudge.

He wasn't going to hear the end of that for a while from me. Especially since for a few minutes last night, I was about to absolutely kill Fang.

Anyway, after many card games of keeping mind blocks up from Angel so she wouldn't win, and the house was finally fumigated, the Flock went to bed.

I felt bad, but I kept my distance from Fang the rest of the night. He really did, and I hate to admit it, scare the crap out of me when he groped me. I don't like being touched – at all. Years of being experimented on has made me overly paranoid.

Truthfully, I thought it was Iggy, as he usually is the perverted one. But no, it was Fang. It was my boy – boyfr – boyfriend. There, I said it.

But, boyfriend or not, did he get it. When I saw him this morning, his one eye was blackened, and I could tell I bruised some of his ribs by the way he gingerly moved around.

When my mom saw Fang this morning, she just shook her head and said she didn't want to know.

Jeb left last night, a little before everyone went to sleep. It makes me feel better that he didn't stay overnight. That thought made me gag, and it takes a lot to make me gag.

I still hadn't had a chance to tell Fang what I overheard, seeing as I was trying to distance myself a bit still.

"Max, are we going outside to the beach soon?" Angel asked, breaking me out of my reverie.

"Yea, lamby. Everyone's going in a few minutes except for me. I'm going to the nearby boardwalk to get myself a new bathing suit. Just don't tell Ella or Nudge, m'kay?"

Angel nodded enthusiastically before bouncing off to get changed into her own pink bathing suit.

I hated wasting money on something I already have, but really, it's not a bathing suit. It's… lingerie. No matter how many times Nudge or Ella say it's a bikini. Or how much Fang looks at me while I'm in it…

Why did I have to think that? No, I am getting a new bathing suit, I am getting a new bathing suit!

()()()()()

"Are you sure you don't want me to come with you to the boardwalk, honey?" my mom asked me as she gathered the rest of her beach stuff together – towels, sunblock, the all-important snacks.

She was disappointed that I didn't want to wear the bathing suit anymore, but she understood. My mom is amazing… usually.

I was about to say yes, but I was cut off.

"I'll go with you," Fang said quickly. I was about to tell him that he didn't need to, but he shot me a look indicating for me to keep my mouth shut. I did, feeling puzzled and a little worried.

Did Fang want his other eye to be blackened?

My mom looked a little surprised when I didn't object.

"Alright," she said as she herded the rest of the Flock and Ella out of the door. "Just don't get into any trouble, then," my mom added, shooting a suspicious look at Fang. Hmm.

"You two have fun," Iggy said, grinning. He then shot a wink in our general direction, and left the house. My mom shook her head, and closed the door.

I stretched my arms in the air.

"Ready to go?"

()()()()()()

It only took Fang and me a couple of minutes to walk to the boardwalk. We didn't want to fly, just in case we freaked someone out. Or in case we get put into a zoo exhibit. Either or.

We walked there in mostly silence. Usually, I'm alright with that, but this was more awkward silence than peaceful silence.

Once we walked up the steps to the boardwalk off of the beach, Fang took my hand. I was tempted to pull away, still nervous from last night. I didn't want to hurt Fang's feelings, though, so I kept it there.

"Max. Come out with it. Something's bothering you. What? You did say you forgive me, right?" Fang looked at me, his usually stoic face softening.

My heart nearly melted when I saw how Fang-like sad he was.

"Here," I said smiling a bit, and handed Fang money "go over and get us a large tub of curly fries to split, and I'll tell you." Fang took the money obligingly, and left.

You know what? It isn't Fang that's bothering me – it's the whole Jeb/Mom thing. I have to tell someone before I go crazy thinking about it. Not to mention the whole someone's-trying-to-kill-us-again thing.

Oh crap! What if the people who want us dead are trying to get the rest of the Flock now?

As the thought crossed my mind, I started to hurry to the store side of the boardwalk, the one facing the ocean, to get Fang and head back to the rest of the Flock. On my way, though, I was stopped by an annoying surprise.

"Hey, Chad, look who it is," the idiot said, nudging his friend and grinning wolfishly. They both stood, shirtless, bronzed, and conceited, blocking my way to Fang.

"Move it or lose it. And by _it,_ I mean your manhood," I snarled at them. Trey and Chad just smirked, and stood even more firmly.

I raised my fist to punch Trey, but he grabbed it smoothly. I was too shocked that he had the guts to do that to pull away.

"Where's your freaky boyfriend with the wings?" Chad asked, snickering as Trey grabbed my hand.

Sure, he was laughing now, but I remembered when he was screaming like a little girl, sprinting down the beach. The thought almost made me laugh, if I wasn't so angry.

I wrenched my fist out of Trey's grip, and was about to punch both of them in the face and kick them in the – uh, yea – when they froze, staring at something behind me.

I used my peripheral vision to see what was behind me. I found the what was actually a who: Fang. He must have snuck up around and behind us.

"I suggest you go now," Fang said, dangerously quiet, his dark wings bristling out a bit from the slits on the back of his black T-shirt, "or else she might do the same to you two that she did to me."

I saw Idiot 1 and Idiot 2 survey the damage I had done to Fang. Up close, you could also see bruises on his arms and face. Whoops.

They backed up a bit.

"_She_ did _that_ to you," Chad said disbelievingly. What a sexist pig, to think that a girl isn't strong enough to beat up a guy.

"Yea," I snarled, "Now leave and my boyfriend and me alone," I said, punctuating each word with a small punch to Chad's muscled chest, "Or, as I said before, you will lose your manhood." Then I smirked. "Not that it would be much of a loss to women or anything."

Trey put his hands up in surrender.

"Alright, alright, we'll leave you two alone," he said, Chad and him backing up, "For now," he grinned toothily and winked at me. It took all my willpower – and Fang's arms – not to lash out at these idiots.

When they were a safe enough distance away, Fang released me a bit, and I hissed at him.

"Why did you stop me?" I said angrily, not really minding that his arms were still around me.

He shrugged. "Not worth it," he said wisely. Who knew Fang had it in him?

Then, Fang spun me around, and kissed me on the lips. I put my arms around his neck, and his went around my waist. For some reason, I didn't care that the people on the boardwalk, which was pretty crowded for it being just the afternoon, could see Fang and me kissing so... passionately. Our heads were turning, trying to get closer to each other, our lips working in sync.

We eventually broke apart the long kiss, very unwillingly. We were probably starting to get stares, though.

"I'll go get our order – it should be up by now." I nodded, fairly speechless, and watched Fang smirk at me and go off to get our fries.

Then I remembered what started this whole thing – the Flock could be in danger.

I started to run over to Fang, when Idiot 2, a.k.a. Chad, stepped in front of me out of nowhere.

"I thought I told you to leave me alone," I growled.

I was about to hit him, when suddenly, I was thrown over his shoulder, fireman style, with strength that no human could possibly have.

I began to continuously hit his metallic back as hard as I could, trying to get free. It didn't do anything though.

Wait… Metallic? Oh, crap, this isn't the real Chad – the one I had hit in the chest a few minutes ago was definitely human, and even though his chest was pretty hard, it was still flesh. That means… This could be the threat Jeb was talking about.

Robo-Idiot, as I decided to call him, started to speed off down the boardwalk. With my kicks and punches doing no good against this super-strong robot, I decided to do the only thing else possible.

"FANG!" I yelled, hoping he could hear me.

He did.

Fang came out of the crowded curly fry place and took off when he saw me, sprinting even faster than we were going, down the boardwalk. He was pushing past talking people, who were all probably wondering what in the world was going on.

I continued to kick and punch, looking for a weak spot on this Robo-Idiot, hoping to stall him until Fang got to us. Obviously, Robo-Idiot started to get tired of my frantic actions, and swung my head into a metallic light pole while still running, almost instantaneously knocking me out cold.

My last thought: Fang, _hurry_.

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**Heh, my first cliffhanger! Did you guys like it? Hate it? Well, tell me what you think in a lovely review! I hope you guys liked it, because I gave up memorizing the Krebs Citric Acid Cycle for this!... Did that sound as nerdy as I think it did? Ah well.**

**Oh, keep voting for Eggy, Niggy, or neither! I'm still trying to decide. It looks like it is going to be Eggy though!**

**Also, next chapter I will most likely mention reviewers and respond to their reviews, so if you review I will mention it :D**

**Plus, if you feel like it, check out some of my one-shots! (Self-plugging is not necessarily a bad thing ;) )**

**R&R? Por favor? (Haha, still studying for that Spanish midterm! And thanks for the review, Turn-On-The-Stars. It made me smile :D)**


	6. Fang Attempts to Save the Day

**A/N: Hey guys!  
_Wow_. I just wanted to start off by saying thanks a million to everyone who has reviewed and given me 82 reviews for 5 chapters. It's so amazing, and I never personally thought I could make it this far :)**

**Here is a list of people who have reviewed so far, responses to their last reviews if they reviewed more than once, and how many times they have reviewed:**

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The Layman (x3): Yes, it is quite a revolting development :)  
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ThunderClouds7 (x2): I'm writing, I'm writing! Hehe.  
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Bubbly-chan (x2): Heh, you'll see soon enough...  
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emily: Here's the more you wanted. And I might go with neither...  
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Krabby Patties: Thanks for the feedback! See below to see how you inspired me ;)  
torii: Heh, yes. Oh.  
:) : Oh, more Fax is coming. Don't worry :)**

**Sorry for that obnoxiously long A/N! Oh, and tell me if I missed you, and I will mention you next chapter. Sorry if I did :D.  
Also, thanks to Krabby Patty, I might not do any Eggy or Niggy, and just keep it Fax. If anyone has any objections, review and tell!**

**Aaaand here's the next chapter!  
**

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**Fang POV**

"FANG!" I heard Max yell from outside of the curly fries place.

Crap. That probably means either two things:

1. Max suddenly realized her undying love for me and had to proclaim it to me right now.

_or_

2. She's in trouble.

Now, I was hoping for #1, but, of course, that probably isn't happening.

Dropping the bucket of curly fries I had just gotten, I bolted out of the doors in time to see Chad, of all people, running down the boardwalk with Max slung over his shoulder.

That creep. I thought he would stay away after what had _just_ happened. And I know Max is light and everything, being a bird-kid, but how come he's so strong to be able to run while holding her while she is beating on his back like that? And doesn't he know kidnapping is, I don't know, a felony?

With these thoughts in mind, I started sprinting down the boardwalk, trying to get to Max. I pushed past confused people, who were all starting to slowly freak out over seeing this little action scene that I call my usual crappy day unfold before their eyes.

I was making it through the crowd faster than that idiot was with Max, as there was double the mass he had to get through the crowd.

Max gave a few final blows to Chad's back before he did something that made my blood turn cold, then boil – he swung Max's body off of his shoulder a bit, then slammed her head into a lamp post, seeming to knock her out instantaneously.

That – that bas – I sped up even more, trying to get to Max in time before he could take her anywhere I couldn't find. I was running out of boardwalk, but the distance between Chad and me was shortening.

Eventually, after pumping my legs continually and without stopping, I was a little bit behind Chad, staring at Max's flopping upper half that was draped casually over his back.

I had to get stop him without hurting Max too much. But how?

I decided to go for the pretty boy's ankles. Shouldn't be too hard, as he's just a human. But Max did have trouble with fighting him off...

"Let her go," I growled, and dropped to the ground, hoping people would have the sense to _move_ and stop screaming like they were now, and slid into Chad's ankles.

They were hard and metallic. Definitely not human. He, however, like the M-Geeks usually do, toppled over when my sneaker-clad feet made contact with his ankles.

As he was falling, he dropped Max too, ensuring a broken neck for her. Before that could happen, though, I rolled out of the way of Chad's falling body, and underneath where Max was going to land.

"Oof," I breathed out when Max's limp body came down onto mine in a position I would have quite liked if it had been any other time.

She may have just re-broken some ribs that were healing after she broke them in the first place, but at least Max is safe.

At least, I hope she is. Before scrambling up to deal with Robo-Idiot, as I now deemed this Chad impersonator, I gently moved Max off of me and checked her pulse. Still beating. Good.

I jumped up at the same time as Robo-Idiot. He immediately swung a punch at my already bruised body, which I ducked swiftly.

"Max-HIH-mum Ride is to come with me," Robo-Idiot monotonously informed me as he swung an ax kick towards my chest. This definitely was not Chad. But how? It looked just like him.

"I thought we told you, Robo-Idiot," I said menacingly, aiming a kick at his feet again, which he unluckily jumped back from, "she isn't going anywhere with you."

I then remembered – if his ankles were his weak point, like the M-Geeks, then his head should be too.

Using this new bit of required information, I darted past another punch and karate-chopped his head.

It worked. Robo-Idiot's head burst open, and orange goo went flying everywhere while he fell to the ground, motionless. While lying there, Robo-Idiot morphed from Chad the idiot to M-Geek extraordinaire.

Crap. Mr. Chu is making shape-shifting M-Geeks now. This won't be good. We already have trust issues as it is.

I stared for another moment at the M-Geek's head, which was still oozing orange. Gross, but satisfying.

Wait, satisfying… Max!

I turned around and spotted Max, still unconscious on the ground. I subconsciously noticed that everyone on the boardwalk within their limited seeing range had gathered around us, some people still screaming from the Robo-Idiot/M-Geek's demise. I thought I heard someone say to call 911, but I pushed all other thoughts out of my head except for one: Max.

I kneeled down and picked her up. I had to get her somewhere more secluded, where if another shape-shifting M-Geek tried to attack us. I stood up with Max in my arms and sped off as fast as I could, pushing through the crowd of people that tried to stop me from moving her. I vaguely noticed the pale faces of Chad and Trey in the crowd. They're both still idiots, even if they aren't Mr. Chu-evil.

Ugh. Everything aches, but I have to help Max.

When I finally broke through the crowd, I jumped off of the nearest steps leading to the beach from the boardwalk. Using my momentum from jumping, I unfurled my wings from the slits in my T-shirt, not really caring if anyone saw anymore, and flew away in the direction of the beach house.

I've got to help Max. It was like a tape recorder was lodged in my skull, repeating it over and over again. I've got to help Max.

I looked down at the face I have nearly always loved, and kissed her forehead as best as I could while keeping both of aloft at the same time. It was difficult, but I think I could manage since it was a short distance and adrenaline was still pumping throughout my body.

"God, Max," I said to her unconscious form, "I can't leave you alone for a minute."

Soon, the beach house was in view. It took me longer than usual to make such a short flight, but as Max weighed me down a lot, I couldn't fly as quickly.

Above the beach house, I slowly made my descent, careful not to jostle Max's body too much.

When I touched the ground, I ran as quickly as I could up the porch steps and into the house, not really bothering that I kicked the door down in my haste.

"Dr. M!" I bellowed, noticing Max's shallow breaths. Crap. Everybody was still at the beach.

Laying Max's limp body on the couch in the living room, I ran out of the house and down to the spot of beach we sat at yesterday.

When they were within human-hearing range, I yelled again.

"Dr. M, Flock," I yelled, nearly breathless, and saw all heads that were near our beach towels snap towards me. "You've got to help Max," I said, and everyone bolted from their spots and came running towards me.

Not wanting to wait for them, I sprinted back to the house, hoping Max was okay in the time that I left her.

Holy crap. This is supposed to be a relaxing vacation. Who were we kidding?

I burst into the house, hearing the rest of the group skitter around behind me.

I led them over to Max's prone body.

Dr. Martinez, with a worried look on her face, bent over Max's body.

"What happened? Fang?" Dr. Martinez asked, her face turned to me, but still bent over Max's body. The rest of the Flock and Ella looked worried as well, Nudge nervously chattering.

Angel had a pensive look on her face, and I could tell she was delving into my mind to see what had happened.

I took a deep breath, and got ready to recount the last, what? Hour?

This is going to be hard for me to explain.

**

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**Ah, poor Fang!**

**Love it? Hate it? Review anyway, if you could, please! And concrit is much appreciated!**

**Don't worry, next chapter will be up by Tuesday! Maybe earlier, though, with enough persuasion (hackreviewshack) :D**

**Thanks to all, once again, who has reviewed!**

**Oh, and I think the summary for this story is pretty crappy, so if anyone has any suggestions for it, I might use them because I can't summarize for my life! Just ask my 15 page outline on the Inquisition book :D**

**Flight at Midnight**


	7. Max Wakes Up and the Flock Foils Fang

**A/N: Hello wonderful readers, reviewers, favoriters, and alerters!  
Amazing guys, just amazing. I reached 108 reviews in six chapters. Much thanks to everyone who made that possible :)**

**Also, thanks to an anonymous reviewer, I realized a mistake I made last chapter - I'll fix it soon enough, though. Thanks to HookedOnDietCoke :)**

**Oh, anyone here read the amazing fanfic, "Diary of a Lovesick Mutant," by Phoenix Fanatic? It's really fantastically awesomesauce, so check it out if you want to - she even mentioned me last week! I was squeeing so badly :D**

**GAH! Midterms are eating my soul. Appreciate this, guys! Heh.**

**The Eggy/Niggy thing is still in the air, but I think it might just be FAX. Comments?**

**Oh, before I begin:**

**Highlight of the Week: My tweenage brother coming into the living room with his pants around his ankles, singing "Pants on the Ground." Priceless :D Until I freaked out and started screaming "Avert your eyes!" and buried my face in the couch.**

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**Fang POV**

"Well, see…" I started off, unsure where to begin. Dr. M went back to examining Max, waiting for me to continue.

"Nudge, go get an ice pack from the freezer and wrap it in a hand towel, then bring it back to me. We need to stop any more swelling from happening," Dr. M told Nudge, and Nudge scurried off to get the ice pack.

"Oh my, this is quite a bruise," I heard Dr. M murmur before straightening up and looking at me.

"Are you going to tell us what happened or what?" Iggy asked irritably, heading over to the couch to check Max's body for any bruises with his own sensitive hands.

I sighed. I pretty much hate talking, so this is going to be awkward.

Nudge handed the ice pack to Dr. M.

"Here I hope it's the right ice pack do you think Max will be okay? Oh I hope she will be because it would totally be not fantabulous if she wa-"

"Nudge," Dr. M said, cutting Nudge off, "I think she'll be fine, from what I've seen so far. Banged up, but fine. However, to be able to tell, I'll have to hear what _happened_. So, Fang, if you could kindly inform us. Now."

"Ah, well, you se-" I started, but was cut short.

"Fang," Angel said sweetly. Uh-oh. "How about I tell them. Y'know, with my mind. I figured out my mind power can transfer memories too. Iggy'll be able to see it then, too! And it'll be a lot easier and a lot less painful for you if I do that."

"Yea, Angel," I said in relief, "that's good. Do it."

I waited while I saw Angel concentrate, and transmit my memories of the day with Max at the boardwalk to everyone else, their jaws slightly slack.

That is one scary child.

When she was finished, Dr. M looked just as concerned, if not more.

"That was quite a blow to the head," she said worriedly, and went back to tending Max, making sure she wouldn't pass into a coma or something medical like that.

Even though I grew up at a scientific research facility, it doesn't necessarily mean I actually paid attention to anything that they talked about there. Which kind of bites me in the butt, at times like this.

Oh god, why did I leave Max alone?

Iggy gave a low whistle. "Shape shifting M-Geeks. This will not go well."

"Woah," the Gasman agreed. "We're not safe after all. Great," he said, his usually happy mood deflating. His mood perked up though in an instant, when a devilish smile lit his face.

"So," he started casually, "Who were the two guys that were bugging you and Max before you left to get the curly fries?" Gazzy asked me. "You know, especially since the M-Geek decided to disguise itself as one of them. Max and you seemed to know them in the memory."

That little demon. Hey, if Angel's, well, an angel, then Gazzy could be a devil. Hm…

Oh, right, the question. I swear I have ADD sometimes. Like what Nudge has when she talks, only in my mind.

"Yea, well," I started, unsure how to answer. Its times like these that I really appreciate being able to not show any emotions. Ever.

"Oooh," Nudge started, excitedly, "Fang's got competition for Max!" She giggled maniacally. Ella and Angel joined in, while Gazzy fake gagged. Iggy merely smirked.

If I could have, I probably would have done the ultimate facepalm right then and there.

But, you know, I have the whole emotionless thing to uphold.

"They were just two guys at the beach yesterday who offered to take Max to a party yesterday while you guys were down in the water. She refused, though, and they left." I internally smirked, remembering yesterday's events.

"Wow, Max is a dingus for not going out with them! I mean, did you see them in the memory?! ZOMG, they were _hot_." I started to get angry. Was I that ugly? But then I realized something.

"Dingus, Nudge?" I asked her. I would have been slightly amused, if I wasn't so irritated.

She giggled.

"Well, yea. Max doesn't like us to curse, so Ella made up dingus!"

I looked at Ella, who just shrugged.

"Well," she whispered, making sure her mom couldn't hear, "I was about to call someone another word that began with a di, when my mom came into the room. I said dingus instead." Ella winked, and then giggled.

"She _is_ a dingus for not going with them though."

Ugh.

Alright, then. That's it: I don't understand girls. It's impossible. No guy will ever be able to. Ever. I mean, is there really something wrong with me?

"Here, Fang," Dr. M said, "Let's bring Max to her room." I obliged, and carried Max out of the room and up a flight of steps, into her room. I was just glad to get out of that conversation, to say the least.

I set her down on the bed, my own muscles aching and groaning from the day's events.

"She should be fine," Dr. M said, looking down at Max. "The ice pack will keep most of the swelling down, and you guys are pretty tough, so once she wakes up, I think she'll be okay. She just can't sleep for about twenty-four hours."

I nodded.

"I'll stay with her. 'Till she wakes up," I said. Dr. Martinez agreed, and left the room.

I could have sworn, though, that Dr. M smiled when she looked back at us before closing the door.

()()()()()

**Max POV**

_Maximum, wake up._

Ugh. Go away, Voice. I haven't heard from you in a while. Do you have to come back now and wake me up?

_You have to wake up _now_, Maximum. The world needs you. And so does the Flock._

Great. Not the whole saving-the-world bit again.

Unwillingly, I opened my eyes and found myself on a bed.

Wait, a bed? Since when… Oh, right. The Flock's on a vacation.

Opening my eyes more and adjusting them to the room's dim light, I saw that it was around late afternoon, and that Fang was sitting next to my bed in a chair, watching me attentively.

"Wow, Fang. Creeper much?" I said, my head throbbing as soon as I opened my mouth to speak.

Then it all came rushing back: Robo-Idiot had tried to kidnap me. When I fought back, he knocked me unconscious. That was why my head hurt so much. But how did I get away?

I looked at Fang with that question in my eyes, my hand reaching up to rub the tender, swollen part of my head.

Fang smirked, and my heart beat a little faster, something probably not good for me right now in my current, uh, state.

"I went after Robo-Idiot, the Chad lookalike. He hit knocked you out though, by swinging your head into a lamppost, knocking you unconscious until now. Your mom says that you're probably going to have a concussion and some swelling, since you got hit so hard. Once I caught up, though, I guessed he was an M-Geek, so I tried to beat him up the same way you would with a regular M-Geek. It worked. It turns out Mr. Chu is making shape-shifting M-Geeks now. I flew you home, and Dr. M helped you."

Wow. Quite a long statement, coming from Fang.

But crap. Fang pretty much just saved my life. I feel like such a damsel in distress. Bleh. And he better not want anything in return for it.

"So," he started, with another annoying (okay, it's kind of cute) smirk. "Do I get a reward for saving you from Robo-Idiot?"

I used all of the energy I could muster to punch him in the arm.

"Pig," I muttered, and he smirked again.

Wait a second…

"I never told you that I called the Chad lookalike robot Robo-Idiot. How did you find out?"

Fang looked almost confused for a second.

"You never told me. I made it up myself. And I never told you either." He paused. "That's pretty freaky. We thought of the same name for it."

It was my turn to smirk.

"I would say great minds think alike, but that would be a serious insult to my intelligence."

It was my turn to get punched. Only, Fang punched me a lot more tenderly than I did to him.

Then, the look on Fang's face softened. Interesting…

"I thought I was going to lose you. Or not get you help in time, once I got you back from the Robo-Idiot." Fang reached out, and I tensed before realizing that he was just softly brushing hair from my face.

Well, that was… wow. Fang's been showing much more emotion than usual, mainly around me. And he was pretty sweet.

Tell anyone that, and you will find yourself floating in an ocean, dazed and confused.

But still, sweet.

"And I realized something," Fang began slowly. He was on a roll now. "After everything that happened this morning – those idiots coming back to try to persuade you away from me again, us not being on the best of terms this morning," he paused, remembering last night's little, "Incident." It was one neither of us were going to forget for a while, for different reasons. Then Fang continued, "the Robo-Idiot nearly kidnapping you, and your almost-deadly head injury – it all made me realize something."

He stood up out of his chair a little, leaned over, and kissed me softly, not wanting to hurt me any more than I already was.

After a few minutes or so of sweet bliss, of our lips moving together perfectly, Fang and I broke apart.

I was grinning from ear-to-ear now, even though it hurt my head like heck.

"I realized, Max," Fang began again, "that I need to tell you now, before anything happens, that I lo-"

At that moment, Iggy, Nudge, the Gasman, and Ella came bursting into the room, with Angel trailing behind, obviously trying to stop them.

I think I heard Fang almost imperceptibly groan under the noise of everyone stampeding in to the room.

Well, my sentiments exactly.

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**R&R? Por favor? (That Spanish midterm is drawing steadily closer! (: )**

**Also, once again, if anyone else can think of a better summary than the crap one I have now, review and tell!**

**So, review! - it'll make up for the craptastic week I have been having! :D**


	8. Concussion Repercussions

**A/N: Thank god midterms are over :) Can you say suckiest week ever? Haha, and thanks to those who reviewed with support for midterms :) Funny enough, Spanish was my easiest XD  
Also, thanks to everyone who just plain old reviewed! It made my week, especially since it was so craptastic.**

**Oh, thanks much to** The Layman**, who is the only one who reviewed with help for my summarizing problem :D And don't worry, the summary wasn't corny - I actually really liked it. So props to** The Layman **for giving me my amazing summary :D**

**Also, thank you to** Gontulet **for pointing out my concussion problem last chapter. I usually look more into things when I'm writing them, but midterms had me so busy that I couldn't really research concussions. Thanks for telling me though :D If anyone notices any problems, tell, k?**

**TGFW… Thank God For Wikipedia :D**

**This chapter isn't my favorite, but it helps set up next chapter, which is going to be full of my two favorite things: Funny and Fax!**

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**Max POV**

"You're awake! Yay for enhanced genetics that allow us to heal quickly! I'm soooo glad you're awake now Max – we weren't sure how long you would sleep! But it looks like only a few hours wow that's pretty long but I'm glad you're awake now," Nudge babbled on.

I felt like yelling at everyone to leave. I really wanted to hear what Fang was going to say.

Angel grinned sweetly.

"I tried to stop them Max, I really did," she said angelically. I swear, that kid could be evil somedays, and the sweetest thing ever the next.

Everyone was babbling to me, saying what they did while I was asleep. I was faintly annoyed, but I had to listen to what the Flock said. That's why I'm the leader – I have to put them before myself, sadly.

After everyone was done talking, (except for Nudge, of course) I raised my hand a bit to get their attentions. I was propped up now, against the bed's headboard, so I could talk better, but my head was still throbbing.

"Guys," I started seriously, and everyone quieted down. Ah, the perks of being a leader. "We need to get serious again. No, vacation's not over, but we still need to be on our guard." I swallowed, and then continued.

"Someone is after us again. I, ah, overheard my mom and Jeb talking about it yesterday." I paused, and tried to not let the memory come to my mind – I didn't need Angel scarred from that memory either.

"What we need to do is make a codeword, one that only us will know, so that if these shape-shifting M-Geeks come back to get one of us again, and they take on the form of one of us, we can have a codeword to make see if it's an M-Geek or not. Agreed?"

The Flock all nodded their head, and I saw a flash of recognition in Angel and Nudge's eyes.

They remember where I got the idea from – it was from back when the Flock split up and we went to Europe, and we made the codeword up to make sure that we could tell the difference from us and our clones.

I stifled a tiny sob – that memory brought back other painful memories, like my half-brother, Ari.

"So, what should the codeword be?" Ella asked excitedly, happy to be in the loop.

"I have a good one," Iggy said deviously. Uh-oh.

He said it, and everyone sniggered except for Fang and me.

"No way. We are not using that," I said with finality.

"Aw, c'mon Max. Please," Angel Bambi-eyed me. I sighed. I suppose it wasn't too bad.

You want to know what it is? Too bad. That would destroy the whole "secret" part for having a secret codeword.

"Fine," I huffed, and everyone grinned mischievously.

Just then, my mom walked in the room.

"Oh good, you're up," my mom said smilingly while handing me some pain relievers. I downed them without water.

"Thanks," I said. "Is there anything else wrong with me from the concussion?"

"Well, you're probably going to have some severe headaches as an effect of your head injury. And probably some dizziness and fatigue…" she trailed off before continuing.

"I'm surprised that you didn't actually die, Max," my mom said reluctantly. The rest of the Flock looked taken aback. I was pretty surprised too.

"You were out of it for hours. But now, you're awake, alive, and do not seem to have any signs of amnesia. A blow like that to your head should have killed you, or at least given you more symptoms of a Grade III concussion, like amnesia. You're pretty much completely fine, except for the headache you have right now."

Wow, I didn't know that. Then how am I alive?

_Because of me, Maximum. I kept you alive. You really shouldn't be alive right now. I am also keeping of the amnesia that usually would come with a concussion like the one you received._

Voice? Really, you did all of that?

_I'm more powerful than you know, the Voice said in a monotone. Besides, we need you alive and with your memory. The world needs you to still save it._

Well then, that's just dandy. I should be dead. That's something a girl always wants to hear.

"Max," Fang said, bringing me back to the present with a gentle shake to the shoulder. "You alright?" His usually emotionless eyes were filled with worry and – an emotion I couldn't really identify. Love? No, it couldn't be, could it?

"Yea, just wait a sec. The Voice is telling me something," I replied. I didn't notice the Flock's faces fill with some relief.

So, Voice. Anything else I should know? I thought to the Voice.

_Even though I'm keeping you fine now, I would not go to sleep until tomorrow night, in case I am unable to keep your condition as stable as it is now. I could be unable to control it in your sleep, and you could get amnesia. Or worse – you could die._

Thanks so much for that pleasant thought, Voice.

There was no response. Like I expected anything other.

I sighed, and prepared to tell the Flock, and my mom and sister.

"Well, guys," I drawled, hoping to seem casual, "the Voice just told me that I shouldn't be alive – that blow to the head should have been fatal enough to at least kill me, or if not kill me, give me a serious case of amnesia. The Voice was able to prevent my body from doing that." I gulped inaudibly.

I noticed that everyone's faces were pale, even Fang. His hands were gripping the edge of the bed so hard that his knuckles were turning white.

"So, you had a really close call then," Ella said slowly. Angel looked close to tears, realizing that if it wasn't for my Voice, I wouldn't be with them.

"Oh, I can't go to sleep until tomorrow night either," I started, "as a safety precaution."

Everyone nodded their heads, still worried over the thought of how close I had been to death.

"I'll stay up with you," Fang said, looking over at me with more sadness in his eyes. It made my heart hurt, seeing him this worried over me.

And it was nice of him to stay up with me, especially since the guy loves his sleep. I swear, I really do lo- like Fang. Yea, like…

"Alright," I said, happy that he was giving up sleep to spend time with me. "If you're sure you want to. Thanks." I grinned at him, and the corner of his mouth twitched up.

Forgetting about everyone else in the room, we looked into each other's eyes, trying to find out what the other was feeling – Fang could probably read my emotions like a book, while I had to dig deeper to see what he was feeling.

I could see sadness that I got hurt, worry that I would stay hurt, a bit of happiness that I survived, and, once again, an emotion I couldn't really identify… Love? I don't know. But whatever it was, it was complicated.

My mom cleared her throat, and I noticed that the Flock, my mom, and Ella were all standing partially uncomfortably as they witnessed my and Fang's little scene.

"Well, ah, we'll just leave you guys. Rest, Max. I'll check on you every once in a while," my mom said, and proceeded to herd everyone out of the room.

After everyone had left, grumbling that they were forced to leave and that maybe they wanted to stay up with me too, my mom turned around before closing the door.

"And no funny business between you two, got it," she said, and I felt my face flush. Fang looked as stoic as ever, but I think I saw his jaw twitch.

"Okay, mom," I finally choked out in embarrassment. After glaring at Fang momentarily, she turned and closed the door.

When I heard her footsteps fade down the steps, Fang leaned over, draped his arm around me to pull me a bit closer to him without hurting me too much, and kissed the top of my head softly.

After he did that, I turned to Fang and grinned.

"Tonight's going to be fun, isn't it?"

Fang lit up my world, and grinned right back at me.

Staying up won't be too bad at all.

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**R&R? Por favor? (Wooh, Spanish midterms are finished!)**

**Oh, and I think I will start updating on Mondays and Fridays from now on. Sound good? That way if people are awesometastic with reviews, I can update Wednesday or Sunday too :D**

**Ah, my friend Ellen (who wants me to tell you that she is my gay lover (haha what a creeper)) is sleeping over, and says HI! Oh, and fyi, she is obsessed with Adam Lambert XD I am going to be stuck listening to his songs all night long!**

**Ellen: I'm here for your entertainment! Let's go bug your brother!**

**Alright, gotta go - review please!**

**And, don't worry, things will be funnier and Faxy-er next chapter :D**


	9. Staying Up with Max and Fang

**A/N: Ugh, back to school. Half-way through the school year, though!**

**Oh, thanks once again to all of the splendiferous (hm, Word is saying that _is_ a word!) people who reviewed! Your reviews seriously made my crappy week much less terrible :) And for that I thank you all sooo much!**

**Next chapter I am pretty sure that I will have a list of the people who have reviewed since the last time I made a list (I think it was for Chapter 4… I'll check on that) and, if they reviewed more than once from the last time I did imade the list the number of times they have reviewed since that chapter. Ya dig?**

**Now, on to the funny and the Faxness! (oh, God, I made it sound like a crappy soap :D)**

**Warning****: Erm, this chapter has some, er, more sexual references than the norm. You have been warned! I think this chapter would be a slightly higher T.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing! If you recognize it, it is not mine! Even if you don't recognize it, it probably isn't mine!**

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**Max POV**

After several more hours of me trying to relax in bed with the whole Flock tiptoeing around me, knowing I would be irritable when I'm not able to do anything, everyone but Fang and me was asleep. Even that wasn't fun yet, since Fang was out, getting us Chinese food after hearing my stomach growl piteously.

He _should_ be back soon. I was worrying about what trouble he could get in though. What if the cashier turned out to be an M-Geek in disguise? Or even a passing pedestrian? Or a –

My worried thoughts were cut off by the noise of the door opening to the beach house, with Fang's muffled steps allowing me to know that it was him and not an M-Geek. Well, at least, not a shape-shifting M-Geek.

I was surprised that I didn't hear Fang land or anything. Well, the walls are really thick, and I was in supreme worry mode.

Just then, Fang came into my room, carrying with him a huge order of Chinese food. Mmm…

Moving my legs out from under the covers to move over, I began to interrogate Fang.

"Password?" I asked, and Fang rolled his eyes. Yea, I'd have to say this was Fang. Either that or a really good M-Geek actor.

Throwing our food onto my bed, after me scooting over to the side, I noticed Fang looked slightly disheveled. I raised an eyebrow in curiosity.

Fang just shook his head. "Really, don't ask," he said. Alright then, I'll have to get it out of him later, when he least expects it.

Fang began opening the cartons Chinese food on the bed. I grabbed a fork (no chopsticks– it's too slow for me, and you can't shove forkfuls in your mouth) and started wolfing down as much food as I could, regardless of my throbbing head.

Smirking, Fang got his own fork and started eating out of the cartons too, our forks occasionally touching. Ah, how romantic. Gag.

Everything was going fine, until Fang tried to open up a packet of soy sauce, and got it all over my pajama pants.

"Fang!" I, and I'll admit it, screeched. These were new pajama pants that my mom had gotten me. Living off of Good Will for most of my life taught me to value new clothes. And I knew that soy sauce stains.

"It's on my pants! Get it off," I screeched, more softly this time, as to not wake anyone up and scrabbled for a napkin to wipe my pants off. They soy sauce had gotten right on the top of my thigh. Joy.

"Sorry," Fang said, and grabbing a napkin quickly, he began to help me scrub away the large patch of dark soy sauce that was quickly spreading across my thigh.

"Rub it harder!" I told Fang when I noticed he was spreading the sauce more than anything. Sadly, though, this boy couldn't seem to do anything right.

"Softer now, you're hurting my thigh," I told Fang, and he just stopped rubbing and looked up at me, with a _Do you want me to help you or not?_ look on his face. I just sighed.

"I'm getting out of these pants," I said, standing up too quickly and getting dizzy.

Ugh, I almost forgot about the concussion. Leaning against the bed for support momentarily, I pushed off and silently headed out my door and down the hall to the bathroom, grabbing my jeans off of the dresser along the way.

I think I heard Fang chuckling quietly as I left the room.

()()()()()()()()()

**Iggy 3****rd**** Person POV** (huh, that's new for me!)

Iggy tossed around in his bed, trying to get some sleep. Fang's arrival with his and Max's food had awoken Iggy up from the almost-sleep he was drifting in.

He faintly heard with his sensitive ears the mumbling of words, and the ripping open of Chinese food cartons. His stomach grumbled a bit, caused by his thinking of warm, delicious Chinese food.

"I'm awake anyway," Iggy grumbled to himself quietly as he swung his legs out of bed to partake in eating Chinese food. He was about to open his door and go down the hall, but stopped suddenly at the sound of his leader's voice.

"Fang!" his sensitive ears heard Max screech. A perverted smile lit his face.

Were things getting interesting between his Flock leader and her right-hand man? He stopped to listen, straining his sensitive ears to hear through the many layers of walls.

"It's _in_ my pants. Get it _out_!" Or, at least, that's what Iggy heard, as it was muffled through the thick walls.

The perverted grin quickly slid off of his face, and a horrified look replaced it. He knew his leader and his best friend were becoming intimate, but not to this level just yet!

"Sorry," he believed to hear as Fang's almost muted reply, and Iggy's tension released a bit.

_Phew_, he thought, relieved, _at least they stopped before doing anything like __**that**_.

That is, until he heard what Max said next.

There were some incoherent words that his perceptive ears couldn't even hear, and then…

"…harder!... Softer now, you're hurting my thigh." Iggy's already pale skin paled even more.

Iggy may pretend to be perverted as all get-out around Fang, but really, at heart, he was just a fairly innocent, fun-loving pyromaniac blind chef, who really didn't want to hear _whatever_ that was going on in that room down the hall.

Then, sadly, Iggy heard Max's next fairly muffled line too.

"I'm getting out of these pants."

Not wanting to hear anymore, Iggy quickly dove back into bed, and just tried to silence everything around him. He wasn't fast enough, though, to not hear Fang's very faint laughs.

_Oh god_, Iggy thought. _It's one thing to talk about __**that**__, but to actually hear your best friend and someone who's practically your sister do… __**that**__?_

He shivered, even in the night summer air. Iggy was definitely confronting Fang about that night's events the next morning. Disregarding his still empty stomach, Iggy drifted off into a much-welcomed sleep.

Poor, confused little Iggy.

()()()()()()()()

**Max POV**

Coming back to my room after changing my pajama pants and leaving them to soak, I saw Fang had cleaned up the remainder of the Chinese food and brought Ella's portable DVD player into the room.

There were three movies Ella brought with her that we could see: "Twilight," (erm, no thanks), "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire," (a possibility), and "Sixteen Candles" (hm. Maybe.).

I looked at my watch. Ugh. It was only 1 a.m. At least 8 hours until everyone wakes up.

Fang, being the ultra ninja/creeper that he is, walked into the room behind me and grabbed my waist from behind.

Being the paranoid self that we all know and love (snort), my fist came up to punch my assailant in the face. Fang, expecting this, caught my hand smoothly, and kissed it. I tried to cover it, but it really sent shivers down my spine.

Blushing at the affect Fang had on me, I kept my back pressed against his chest, head throbbing from the sudden adrenaline rush combined with the injuries already sustained.

"So," I started out, trying to be smooth, "What movie?"

I felt Fang, the ever silent one, shrug against my back. I internally sighed.

"Um, I guess we could go with 'Sixteen Candles.' It looks pretty good, even if it is from the '80s."

"Sure," I felt Fang's voice rumble from inside his chest, almost making me shiver again. I was aware to a hypersensitive degree of his arms encircling my waist. "We can watch it."

Fang and I laid next to each other on the bed, the DVD player and our heads near the footboard.

I tried to stay a good six inches away from Fang, as being too close to him screws up my thought process. However, just as we got the movie started, Fang put his arm around me and scooped me closer. Eh, what the heck.

I laughed throughout the movie, occasionally with Fang, if it was funny enough for him.

There was one scene, though, that totally messed the movie up for me and Fang (hopefully Fang). Let's just say it involved a locker room and a girls' shower.

_That_ image won't come out of my brain for a while. And this movie is PG!

Stretching carefully after the movie was over, I checked the time. It was only 3:30?! Great. Then, Fang once again wrapped his arms around my waist. This time I didn't attempt to hit him – I was getting so tired.

_Maximum, don't fall asleep now_, the Voice irritatingly reminded me.

I won't, I won't, I thought back, irked. But what can I do…?

"Talking to the Voice?" Fang breathed in my ear, and I almost jumped.

Riiight. I nearly forgot about the hot – er I mean, uh… just don't tell anyone I thought that – bird-boy staying up with me.

Oh, god, I'm getting nearly as bad as Iggy.

Turning around in Fang's arms, I smiled mischievously up at him. Half-smiling back at me, Fang took the initiative and kissed me.

Laughing in my head about how easy it was to get Fang to kiss me, I put my own arms around Fang's neck, and deepened the kiss. We tilted our heads to get as close as we could to each other.

All was fine for many minutes, until I decided to press up more against Fang. When I did, I felt something, uhm, hard and sticking out from Fang's pants push up against me. My previously closed eyes shot wide open.

Completely disgusted, I jumped back from a very confused Fang.

"Oh my god, Fang," I started my eyes traveling to his midsection, where I could see the bulge now, "I didn't know you were that serious."

Fang's own eyes followed my line of vision to see what I was staring at. When he did, he started laughing. Laughing!

"Fang," I said, "This isn't funny. It's -" I was cut off.

"No, Max," he said through his laughs, tears actually coming out of his eyes now, "Dr. Martinez gave me Ella's cell phone to keep, just in case anything happened so that I could call her."

I was still confused. "Yea... And," I prompted him, not seeing where this was going.

"I put the phone in my pants pocket, and when we were making-out, my pants must have slid over a bit, shifting the pocket with the phone to the front."

Comprehension began to dawn on my face, and I started laughing to.

"So it was a – it was a –" I couldn't get it out, I was laughing so hard. Eventually, I gathered enough breath to exclaim "It was a _phoner_!"

New peals of laughter came from Fang after that. I'm surprised that we didn't wake half the house with all of our laughter.

We sunk to the floor, back-to-back, clutching at our stomachs. My head hurt from all of the laughter, but it was so worth it to see Fang just lose control of his emotions like that.

Eventually, our laughter died down enough for us to catch our breaths.

"I thought for a minute that I would have to deck you again," I said, after I had caught my breath.

Fang nodded. "Once I realized what you thought it was, I thought that you wouldn't give me a chance to explain," he said, still fairly breathless from laughing.

I checked the clock on my nightstand. It was 6:30 already? Wow, time flies when you're having fun with your boyfriend.

I heard Fang take a few deep breaths.

"Max, I never got a chance to tell you yesterday," he started. Oh, right. Before the Flock came in, he was about to tell me something. "Since we have time now, and you aren't about to beat me up and/or get yourself injured, I just wanted to tell you, Max, that I really do l-" he was cut off again, but this time by Ella's cell phone ringing loudly in his pocket.

_I'm in the business of misery,  
Let's take it from the top.  
She's got a body like an hou-_

Fang cursed under his breath, and picked up the phone.

"Hello?" he said, and my super-sensitive ears picked up an unfamiliar voice on the other line.

"Hey! This isn't Ella! Who are you, and why did you take Ella's pho-" Fang hung up on who I assumed to be Ella's friend.

Who in the world calls Ella at 6:30 in the morning?

"Well, back to what I was saying -" Fang began again, only to be interrupted once more.

"Hey guys," my mom said, poking her head into my room, perky and dressed for the day. "Want some breakfast?" She must have come downstairs without us noticing her footsteps.

"Sure," I replied. "We'll be out in a minute."

I looked at Fang. "As you were saying," I said, but he just shook his head.

"Nevermind," he mumbled, and stood up. Fang left the room, sadly almost, leaving me confused than I should be. Ugh. Boys.

()()()()()()()()

**Fang POV**

The universe hates me. I know it. Every perfect chance to tell Max, and it's blown, someway or another. Agh, I have to find the perfect time and place to tell Max.

I have to tell her that I love her. Sooner rather than later.

* * *

**I hope you all liked it! **

**Oh, and Ellen (remember her from the second A/N of last chapter?), gave me the whole "Rub harder" idea. Thank you, Ellen, and your perverted mind!**

**I also hoped you guys liked my take on Iggy. Like, he's still perverted (I mean, if he was completely innocent, he wouldn't have thought of all of that), but, really, he isn't entirely perverted in the books. More goofy, y'know?... Or you could completely disagree with me. Either/or.**

**I love "Sixteen Candles"! And pretty much any Molly Ringwald movie :D**

**Oh, and P.S. to **The Layman**: Do you really think I should continue "The Flock's Take on Fanfictions"? Thanks for reviewing that, by the way!**

**And no offense to the people who like Twilight! Personally, I don't like it that much, and I just feel that Max wouldn't either. She just doesn't seem to be one to like too much romance :)**

**R&R? Please? (Ahh, no more Espanol midterm!)**


	10. Max and Gazzy's Ultimate Prank

**A/N: Hello faithful readers and reviewers! Sorry for the chapter being so late, but I was busy. I'll try to update Tuesday, though!**

**Here's a list of reviwers from the last time I made a list! The number next to the names is how many times the person reviewed since the last time I did this, not overall!**

**ThunderClouds7 (x3): Thanks! And I am!  
****orange .polish: Thanks for reviewing again :) I had to think a little bit hard on how Fang would explain, but then I thought, oh, why not have Angel do it! X)  
****Jojii-chan (x2): I'm glad you thought it was funny! And, I think I will continue it. Possibly…!  
****faxgirl (x2): :) Thanks!  
****katiegirl101199 (x4): Phew! Thanks for reviewing! And here's the next chapter! And I'm happy that you like my story, too! P.S. Thanks for the PM! I'll get back to you soon!****HookedOnDietCoke: Once again, thanks much for pointing that out. I'll fix it soon enough!  
****SinisterGinny: I'm glad you like it, and thanks for reviewing :D Yea, I realllly wanted it to be #1 too, but then that would foul up the plot I have in mind, so…!  
****Bite-me-grr: Yea, I would be freaked if I were Nudge too! I mean, 11 and 14? I think it's a fairly large age gap. But, then again, my parents are about 5 years apart, so… Also, I'm glad you like my story, and thanks for reviewing!  
****sara: Haha I try to update as much and as well as I can. However, I'd rather take quality over quantity, in story-writing terms. And I'm glad you like it XD  
****nm-maximumride4eva (x4): You have, once again, reviewed for all of my chapters :D Thanks so much for all of the support you have given me, and you have definitely earned the title of Most Faithful Reviewer! And, yea, that's just the way Iggy's mind works! Actually, it's the way a lot of guys' minds work! XD  
****Kay: Ahaha, it's fine, I understand, since you're not a member. Thanks for reviewing it, anyway, and I'm so happy that you like it too :D  
****XxDarkGreenWingsxX: Aw, thanks! I have to thank OoDarkCookiesoO for the compliment, and thanks for reviewing!  
****ktroxursoxoff: Thanks! I'm pleased that you think my story rocks :)  
****The Layman (x4): Heh, yea…! I thought the warning might have been necessary XD Wow, you feel pretty strongly about Twilight! Cool :D A lot of people don't really voice that, so, nice! And I think I understand what you mean about the story. I probably am going to continue it. I just have to find the time, and the right medium to start with. So thanks for the encouragement!  
****Turn-On-The-Stars: Hm, well maybe I can hint at it, maybe I can't. We'll see :D I'm a better Fax writer, I think, though. And the whole serious illness thing made me smile again! Thanks :D  
****bleachgirl4 (x4): Haha, thanks :D And don't worry; Fang will *hopefully* get to tell her. All in good time, all in good time!  
****Rachel (x5): I'm glad you thought last chapter was funny! And, don't worry, Iggy will be confronting Fang soon enough…  
****mail_jeevas+max_ride (x3): Haha, nice review XD But, seriously, I'm joyously smiling that you like it :D  
****Krabby Patties (x3): Thanks :D I try to keep Nudge's talking on track, because I notice a lot of people do that too, so I try not to. So, thanks! And I hope you liked last chapter!****hoping togetAsonmidterms: Like the reviewing name :D Thanks to everything you said!  
****nudge-loves-iggy5304 (x3): Thank you, and I am :D  
****21reeree21 (x4): Haha, and more is on its way!  
****Break In Silence: Hah, thanks, and I am :) But, yea, that's Fang's life for ya!  
****Bubbly-chan (x2): Yea. Midterms were terrible. I hope you did fine on yours, anyway!  
****All-Smiles-.'D: Heh, yupp. I'll try to write more as much as I can. But, as I've said, quality over quantity!  
****ellabella89: Hah, thanks :D I love that chapter too! Be careful when eating cereal, it's been known to kill XD Heh thanks anyway!  
****Nighthawk21 (x3): Heh, glad you love it! And I am writing more now!  
****THECR0W: OHMIGOODNESS!!! I was laughing so hard when I read your review, since it was all in Espanol! Gracias, mi amiga! Estoy feliz eso te gusta es! …I think I said that correctly! (I'm only in Spanish uno!)  
****steeve: Thanks!  
****Anonymous: Wow, I'm honored that you think this is the "most awesome fanfic ever." That means a lot to me, even though I do beg to differ. My writing style really isn't that great. But thanks anyway!  
****mongosquishy (x3): Hehe, yupp! Gotta love Iggy!  
****Gontulet: Yea, I realize that now. Thanks for pointing it out, though, and I changed it!  
****OoDarkCookiesoO: Thanks! And I know how you feel!  
****maispecialk (x2): Haha, thanks! *snickers* Thanks again!  
****kate .emri .nudge: Haha, and I did update, so I hope you liked it! :D  
****IPityYou (x2): Heh, thanks! I know, she should, but that really isn't how Max thinks though, so I guess she was just surprised!  
****helenaride: Haha, everyone will see what the codeword it soon enough!  
****Niggyluver: Thanks :D I'm glad you like it, and that it isn't as cliché as you thought it would have been. I try to stay away from clichés, so if I stray too close to one, I won't mind a warning!  
****AAA1997: Sounds rough. I hope it works out for you, though. My cousin has ADD too XP Yea….  
****Tsparks158: Hahaha, I'm happy you thought it was funny!  
****fangs-1girl: Haha, I think it could be too! Thanks for the review, and the suggestion :D  
****Daltonrulez12 (x2): Hah, yea! Fate can be a total downer.  
****justplainawesome: Thanks, and I'm updating now! And maybe a hint or two of Niggy/Eggy. Possibly. Maybe. We'll see.  
****bookworm: Thanks, and I'm happy that you like it! And I am writing!  
****turtlelover0511: Don't worry, I am! Thanks for reviewing!  
****AndThenItBegan: Thanks, I'm glad you like it! And I'm updating – because, who can't resist Bambi eyes?  
****awesomepersonrighthere: Haha, ah, thanks!**

**And, I think that's it! Thanks much to all who reviewed, and I'm sorry if I missed you. I'll try to make a list every few chapters, I think...!**

**Now, here's the chapter!**

* * *

**Max POV**

I was wiped. I really wanted to go to bed, but I had to stay up for at least another fourteen hours. Ugh.

Not to mention that Fang's been even more dark and brooding than usual, ever since my mom interrupted what he was going to say about an hour ago. I think he's planning something, but I can't figure out whatever it could be.

So, I was sitting on the stool at the breakfast island in the middle of our kitchen, eating my fourth helping of Mom's amazing breakfast, when I heard the first member of my Flock get up.

"Mornin' Max, Dr. M," Gazzy said sleepily as he shuffled into the kitchen. He was usually the first to wake up, after Fang and me.

Speaking of Fang, he had holed himself up in his room after getting some breakfast-to-go. Like I said, he's been more brooding than usual.

"Hey Gaz," I said affectionately, ruffling his hair as he stood next to me to hop on his own stool and get his first heaping of breakfast.

After mumbling a word of thanks to my mom, who scooped eggs, pancakes, and sausage onto Gazzy's plate, and idea struck me. I still hadn't gotten revenge on Ella for the bathing suit (which I still haven't been able to get rid of), or Nudge for the whole closet thing, so this could be perfect. They wouldn't even realize that I did anything.

As soon as my mom left the kitchen to do something else, I consulted the Gasman.

"So, Gazzy," I began carefully. Gazzy looked at me, with mischief in his eyes and forkfuls of eggs shoved in both of his cheeks, making him look like an adorable chipmunk… Well, a chipmunk that could kick a grown man's butt. He could tell something interesting was coming.

"Would you like to earn $10, and play a trick on Ella and Nudge, without getting in trouble?"

Gazzy nodded his head vigorously. I didn't need to ask him twice.

()()()()()()()()()

**Fang POV**

Think Fang, think. How and when could I get the chance to tell Max I love her? Every time I try, the universe messes with me, and something interrupts the moment.

Suddenly, and idea popped into my head. It could work, or it could totally shoot me in the foot. Well, for Max, I guess I'll have to take the chance.

I'm going to ask Ella and Nudge, and maybe even Angel, to help me plan the perfect date with Max. I could take her out to eat, see a movie, take a romantic walk on the beach (I think my testosterone levels just dropped), and do whatever Max wants. Then, at the end of Max's perfect night, I would tell her that I love her.

It's perfect, and the girls could help me make it so that I don't totally screw it up, as I am so apt to do.

It should be flawless. However, knowing the girls, especially Nudge, they're going to want to go over the top, which I don't want, and I'm pretty sure Max wouldn't want that either.

That, or the girls are going to tease me mercilessly until I die.

It would be worth it, though, to see Max's amazing, chocolate eyes filled with happiness, to see her confident walk next to my slouched one, Max's calloused and warm hand in mine, and her soft, sweet lips under mine... Oh god, I'm so lovesick, it's not even funny.

I checked the clock on my nightstand. It was only 8:30, so Nudge probably won't be up for at least another hour, and Ella another half-hour. Angel could be up, though.

I was about to get off of my bed, which I had been lying on, to get Angel, when there was a knock on my door.

"It's open," I said, and I raised my head just enough to see a tired-looking Iggy enter my room and close the door behind him. Interesting… I wonder what he has to talk about that has him so fidgety.

()()()()()()()

**Iggy 3****rd**** Person POV**

As soon as Iggy woke up, he knew that he had to confront Fang about what he heard last night.

Iggy's dreams had been disturbing enough, filled with things about Max and Fang that _no one_ would ever want to dream about. Iggy, needless to say, had not gotten a good night's sleep. So, he just had to ask Fang about what had happened, so maybe he could get them off his mind more. And maybe even get a few tips for himself…

So, gathering the bravado and swagger that he had so quickly lost last night after hearing those _certain_ things, Iggy strode up to Fang's closed door and knocked, gathering himself for the ultimately awkward confrontation of his short life.

"It's open," his sensitive ears heard Fang say. Iggy opened the door and walked into the room, closing the door carefully behind him. He wanted to make this as quick as possible – 1 because he didn't really want to be doing this, and 2 because he was missing breakfast.

Iggy didn't need his sight to know that Fang was looking at him curiously – well, as curious as Fang could get.

Iggy then realized he had to say something.

"So…" he started, gathering the courage to begin this conversation, "I overheard you and Max last night. With the whole pants thing. How was it?" Iggy ended, trying not to be too awkward.

Iggy heard Fang darkly chuckle, and his bravado-filled façade almost crumbled.

"Fun," came Fang's famous one-word reply.

At that point, Iggy almost left the room. However, he knew he had to go on – and maybe even confront Fang more, and tell him that if he ever hurt Max, not only would Max beat up Fang, but so would Iggy. Iggy cared more about Max, in that endearing brotherly way of his, than he would have cared to admit.

"I guess you finally did it then," Iggy said, his perverted façade coming to the front now. Iggy could feel the blank but slightly confused stare that Fang was giving him. "You know," Iggy began to clarify, "the horizontal tango. The 'dirty deed.' The –"

Iggy was cut off by deep, uncharacteristic laughter from Fang. Laughter! Iggy had heard Fang laugh so few times, that he wasn't even sure what it was at first.

"What's so funny?" Iggy said, annoyed. "I don't see what's so funny. Was Max really that bad? Or-" Iggy was then cut off by Fang once again.

"No," Fang said in between laughter, "we didn't do that. We only made-ou – I mean kissed. What would give you _that_ idea?" Iggy felt relief flood through him with every word Fang said.

"So, you didn't really…" Iggy heard Fang shake his head no. "Oh," Iggy said, as he felt around for a chair to sit down on. When he finally found one, he sat down, feeling like an idiot.

"Well, I kind of heard Max say something about you and something in her pants, and rubbing, and… Yea…" Iggy finished awkwardly. That conversation definitely didn't go as planned.

"I spilled soy sauce on her pants. I was trying to rub it off. You must not have heard us right." Iggy's pale face flushed. It _had_ been hard to hear them.

"Oh… Alright then… I'm going to eat breakfast now," Iggy said, then got up from his chair and left the room. He heard Fang chuckle yet again through the closed door.

Well, _that_ wasn't embarrassing or anything.

At least, now, Iggy's dreams wouldn't be plagued by what he believed were the nightly ventures of Max and Fang.

()()()()()()()

**Max POV**

"Are you ready, Gaz?" I whispered to him, after he wiggled behind the big stereo system in the living room. Oddly enough, I felt like I was being watched through the window behind me. When I turned around, though, I saw nothing, maybe a shadow. It was discomforting.

Our plan was about to go into effect. Ella and Nudge had woken up about two hours ago, and, after breakfast and a brief and strange conversation in Fang's room with Angel and Fang, leaving them giggly and secretive, we were ready to start everything.

Gazzy, using my mom's iPod Touch, turned some music on that you would typically find on a teenage radio station. He would keep the song on until Nudge and Ella came into the room.

I turned the radio on, but put it on mute so no one could hear it, it would just look like it was on. Then, Ella and Nudge entered the living room, talking conspiratorially. They abruptly stopped when they saw me.

"Oh, hey Max," Nudge bubbly said. I then heard Gazzy turn off the music.

"And here with us today on the radio show," the Gasman said, using his mimicry to copy some radio personality's voice, making it seem like it was coming out from the speakers, "is Canada's own Justin Bieber!"

Ella and Nudge squealed, and sat down on the couch in front of the speakers to listen. I had found out they shared many mutual likes, one of the strongest being the "singer" Justin Bieber. I think it was more his looks than anything that they liked about him, because his singing was like a girl's.

"Hey, everybody," I heard Gazzy say in Justin's voice. If I didn't know any better, I would have said it was real.

"So, Justin, continuing what we were saying earlier," Gazzy said in the radio personality's voice again, "what do you like a girl to wear?"

"Well, Steve," 'Justin,' said, "Farmer overalls are a _must_. Batman capes are a plus, too. Purple elbow-length gloves, ty-dye jackets, and, you know what, anything Lady GaGa wears to a performance."

I had to try my hardest not to laugh. Ella and Nudge were lapping it up, even though it was the most ridiculous thing I ever heard. Well, Gazzy was pretty darn convincing.

Gazzy rattled off a few more things that even _I_ knew were not fashionable, before going back to Steve's voice.

"So, would you just love a girl to wear the items of clothing you just listed, when you visit and perform at Coconut Mall today at 1 in Emerald Isle in North Carolina today?"

Ella and Nudge squeed again, since that was the beach we were at. My ears were going to start to bleed if they didn't stop.

"Definitely. Who knows? Maybe, if a girl wore clothes like that, they could become my new girlfriend." That set them over the top. Ella and Nudge left the room, nearly screaming, to get ready to see Justin Bieber. Grinning, I walked over to the stereo.

"Amazing job, Gazzy. They lapped it up." Gazzy wriggled out from behind the stereo. Thank goodness for thin bird-kids.

"That was fun! You don't even have to pay me for that one! I just can't wait to see them when they head to the mall, looking silly, only to find that Justin Bieber isn't there, and they just totally embarrassed themselves. Sweet," Gazzy said, enthusiastically. I suddenly became wary. Who knew what else this evil child could do?

I could still hear Ella and Nudge upstairs, scrambling to find all of the clothes "Justin" had said. I also heard Ella yell to my mom to drive them to the mall in fifteen minutes.

Gazzy grinned, and then left, saying something about finding a camera.

This should be good.

()()()()()()()

Around 1:30, my amused mom, a mischievous Gazzy, and a fuming Ella and Nudge came back to the beach house.

"Justin wasn't there," Nudge said angrily, untying and then throwing her Batman cape onto the couch in a huff. Where she had found a Batman cape, let alone the rest of her clothing, was beyond me. "We only got laughed at. Ella and I were tricked! But how?"

I put on a sympathetic face, trying not to laugh as Gazzy surreptitiously left the room, camera hidden under his hoodie.

"I dunno, hun," I said, gloating on the inside. I put down the book my mom had given me to read, "Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl." Depressing, but good.

Iggy and Fang were both holed up in their rooms now. When I had seen Ig at breakfast, he couldn't even make eye contact with me. Odd… And Fang was still, for lack of a better word, plotting.

Ella huffed. "It was so embarrassing. I'm glad we're on the East Coast, where no one knows me." She took off her elbow-length gloves.

Reflecting on their whole outfits, it was worrying how much sway a 15 year-old boy could have on girls.

"Well, if you girls get changed, we can go to the beach again," my mom said, still baffled at the last hour's events, but just decided to go with the flow. Good idea.

They immediately brightened up again.

"Alright!" they said in unison. Suddenly, Ella laughed again.

"And Max can wear her bathing suit again, since she never got the chance to get a new one!" How do they freakin' remember that? Ugh.

My mom laughed, seeing the look on my face.

"Okay, let me go round-up the boys," she said, and left the room. Ella and Nudge anxiously followed, chattering about something that they were planning tomorrow night, that I couldn't figure out.

I turned to go put my bathing suit on, when I saw a shadow looking through the glazed window leading to the porch. I tensed up, getting ready to fight. When nothing happened, I strode over to the window, opened it, and prepared myself to confront the shadow, a knot forming in the pit of my stomach.

When I threw the window open, though, the shadow had disappeared.

I peered out the window, looking all over for who it could have been. No one appeared to be around, but I couldn't shake the feeling of being watched.

It was official: We were under surveillance. With that piece of information stored in my mind, I headed up the stairs to my room to change, making sure to close my blinds.

* * *

**Love it? Like it? Hate it? Review and tell me! Concrit is welcome, as are suggestions. Tell me if I do anything wrong, because, seriously, I don't mind! Like, if you feel more could happen in the chapters (thank you for that, Krabby Patties - is this better now?), or more funny, or more Fax (sorry about this chapter being fairly devoid of it - next chapter will be better!). Also, I would like to know whether or not my comedy is crap XD Just wondering!**

**Next chapter is going to be the rest of the day at the beach, more of Fang's perfect date plan, more Fax, and more!**

**...And what a coincidence! Justin Bieber's on TV! Wow. No offense, once again, to those who like him.**

**R&R? Ease-play? (Goooo Pig Latin!)**


	11. Fun at the Beach

**A/N: Hello amazing readers and reviewers!**

**I'm so sorry about the wait - school was hectic this week. However, I will definitely try to get a chapter up by Tuesday, since you guys were so amazing with reviewing last chapter. Thanks much to all who reviewed :D**

**Did I mention I met the cast of "Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief" cast? So flipping amazing XD**

**This chapter is more of the Flock's day at the beach - fully. More mishaps and Faxness on its way!**

* * *

**Max POV**

After changing into the dreaded bikini (I really have to get a new swim suit), I threw on my Bermuda shorts and my white tank top with slits on the back for my wings, and left my room to face the mess I call my life.

As I left my room and started down the steps, a few things were going around in my mind:

1. Who is watching the Flock? Does it have anything to do with the shape-shifting M-Geek that attacked me?

2. How long am I going to be at the beach before I punch somebody's lights out?

3. Where can I burn this bikini?

and

4. What's going on with Fang?

Now, sadly enough, 1 is at the top of my priorities list. I mean, Flock before Fang, right? ...Right? I wish it didn't have to always be that way.

I made it down the stairs just as Fang was coming out of the bathroom. I was safe, though, since he had a shirt on this time.

"Why did I see Nudge and Ella in, er, costumes?" Fang said in his Mr. Rock-like way.

I nearly grinned. "Something about Justin Bieber," I said, nonchalantly – you never know who could be listening. Fang just shook his head slowly, and turned to walk away.

Why was he being so distant? Ever since this morning, when my mom interrupted him…

I started to follow him, when he suddenly stopped, causing me to nearly walk into his back. _That_ wouldn't have been fun for his wings.

Fang turned towards me, and I saw him steeling himself for something. If I didn't know any better, I would say he looked almost nervous.

"Just wondering," Fang started, "are you doing anything tomorrow night?" My heart nearly exploded at that point, it was beating so hard. Was he asking me on a date – like the epic fail in Hawaii?

"Nothing that I know about," I said, slowly, trying not to seem too excited, while in my head I was screaming _No, not at all Fang! Ask me on a date already, you sexy fool!_ …You didn't hear that.

"Then," Fang began hesitantly, "Do you want to go on," he faltered for a minute before continuing, "a date?"

Then, the world exploded.

No, just kidding, dear readers, but that's nearly what it felt like. And, of course, that would be my luck.

"Sure," I said, playing it cool once again. Inside, though, I was happy-dancing like the girly-girl that I will never be.

Fang looked relieved, almost. Why would he ever think that I would run away from him?... Oh, right.

"Okay, sure. Tomorrow night at 7, then?" I nodded my head vigorously, then realized that I probably looked like a cheap bobble-head on a trampoline, and changed it into a slow head nod. It was a little too late for that, though, because I saw the shadow of a smirk flit across Fang's face.

"Well," he said, trying not to look smug, since he knew I'd get angry if he did, "I'll see you at the beach in a few, then."

Before he could turn and leave, though, I through my arms around Fang's neck, and brought my face to his, our lips meeting half-way. Yea, it was spontaneous, and really not my style, but my happiness and darn hormones overturned my common sense. And, I don't think that either Fang or I really cared.

We turned our heads every which way and that, and suddenly, Fang's wings came out of his back and encased us in a warm, feathery black cocoon, cutting us off from the rest of the world.

In the minutes I was kissing him, all of my troubles just seemed to melt away. Kissing Fang is like taking Valium – except, usually, kissing Fang is a lot less embarrassing.

After a while, we halfheartedly broke apart. I needed to though, as my brain was slowly loosing oxygen.

Grinning, Fang tucked his wings in, turned, and went through the sliding glass door in the living room that had a pathway that led to the beach.

"See you there," he called back over his shoulder.

Once I figured he was far enough away, I uncharacteristically whooped, knowing that everyone else was at the beach already. I didn't really care, though, if they did. I was going on a date with Fang!

After getting my excessive grinning under control, I headed out the glass door, but not before seeing that shadow pass the window again. My happy mood immediately deflated.

I have to remember: Flock before Fang. Maybe I can't go on that date.

()()()()()()

I got to the beach and laid down on my stomach on a large green towel next to Ella, while everyone else was down at the water.

I looked at the book she was reading, and snorted.

"'The Cheese and the Worms'? What kind of book is that?"

Ella flushed. "I am reading it for school," she said, sounding depressed almost. "It's for summer reading in my honors History class. It's seriously putting me to sleep."

I made a sucks-to-be-you face. One of the few perks of being a bird kid is no schoolwork. Then again, the disadvantages kind of outweigh the perks…

"Maybe if Justin Bieber was in it, the book would be better," I teased her, trying to seem innocent about the whole thing. Ella flushed even more.

"I still don't know how we fell for that. But we thought it was _Justin Bieber_! I wonder, though, how we got tricked like that…"

Uh-oh. We're getting too close to dangerous waters here. I was saved though, by light footsteps scurrying through the sand to the towel.

"Max!" Angel said happily. This was, suspiciously enough, the first time I had seen or heard her all morning. A good thing, I guess, since she didn't know about the whole Bieber plan. "Do you want to come down to the water with us? It's pretty warm!"

I glanced down over at Ella.

"Just go," she sighed, shooing me away. "Leave me to my misery." I grinned, and stood up.

"Thanks, Ells," I said, then proceeded to take off my tank top and shorts. When I had, I ran with Angel past my watching mom and into the water, a few feet away from the rest of the Flock.

I dove in when I had gotten out of the shallows. When I came up from the water, enough to cover up to my neck, I felt kind of funny. Colder, on my upper torso. Curiously, I looked down.

Crap! When I dove in, my bikini top came off. Luckily, though, I was pretty far away from the rest of the Flock, and the water was pretty murky. I never thought I would actually appreciate pollution.

So, not wanting anyone to see, erm, me, I sunk lower into the water. I turned frantically in the water, looking for my disappearing bikini top. It was nowhere to be found.

The Flock were looking at me peculiarly now, wondering what in the world I was doing. Fang started to break away from the Flock to see what was wrong. Before he could get far, though, I stopped him.

"Don't come any closer!" I said, knowing I must sound like I was going crazy. Fang stopped, before yelling back.

"Why?" I shook my head, knowing he could at least see that with his raptor vision. Once again, thank you pollution. Fang turned around to play with the rest of the Flock again, but I knew he was keeping an eye on me.

Thank you, Creeper Fang.

_Angel_, I thought, hoping she was listening for peoples' thoughts.

_Yea, Max?_

_I, uh, kinda lost my bathing suit top_, I thought, feeling like a moron for not tying it tightly enough. It's not my fault I've only worn a bikini twice. I shouldn't even have had to wear it, if it weren't for Ella!

_Oh_, Angel giggled. _Want me to send Fang over to help?_

I nearly blanched in the water. _What? No, Angel! Just, um, get me my tank top at the towel, and bring it to me with your eyes closed. Oh, and tell the Flock to not come anywhere near me. But, uh, don't mention why._

Yes ma'am, Angel thought back to me, and I saw the little goofball salute to me from far away before getting my tank top.

I waited, treading water, and feeling exposed. My mom, squinting in order to see me, was watching me from the sand as well now. I just shook my head again, hoping she could see me so she wouldn't tell Ella to come in after me.

Eventually, Angel came running back into the water, tank top in hand. She swam over to me, eyes closed.

_A little to your left, hun_, I thought to her, and she immediately changed direction. When she was close enough, I took the tank top from her hand and put it on.

"Thanks, lamby," I said to her, happy to be covered again, even though my only tank top was now wet.

"No problem, Max," Angel said cheerily, and, without a second glance, headed back to the rest of the Flock.

I swam over as well. When I got close, Fang turned.

"Yo," he said, and did the half-grin that I love.

"Hey," I said, and noticed I finally got to a place where I could actually stand. I put my foot down, and stood up across from Fang.

Immediately, Fang's eyes flew to my chest, and then up to my face, his own face red. I was about to yell at him for being a pig, and most likely punch him, when I noticed he was taking his own black T-shirt off. He was probably the most paranoid about us showing our wings, so, unless we made him, he wore a shirt while swimming. I, being a shameful hypocrite, fixated my eyes on his amazing abs.

Luckily, Fang didn't notice, as he threw his T-shirt at me.

"Put this on," he mumbled, now training his eyes on the rest of the Flock, who were still a good distance away.

I curiously did as he said, but not before looking down and realizing why.

White tank top + water + me being a female = not a good thing. I began to profusely blush, and put the black T-shirt on hurriedly.

"Thanks," I mumbled, embarrassed to no end. Fang just nodded, but I think I saw another smirk flit across his lips.

"Pig," I muttered, and punched him on his still-sore shoulder, and I saw him slightly flinch. Good.

I then felt immediately bad, when I remembered what I saw when I left the house.

"Um, Fang," I started slowly. Fang looked at me, nearly surprised at my sudden change in demeanor.

"Yea."

"Well, I don't think we should go on the date tomorrow after all." Fang's face clouded over.

" Why?"

"You see," I said, playing with the hem of his T-shirt, not wanting to see the hurt look on his face, "I've seen someone watching us a couple of times today. It's always just a shadow, but it's still unnerving. I can't just leave the Flock and have something bad happen to them. I'm sorry, Fang, but I can't be that selfish to them."

I chanced a glance up at him, and what I saw almost broke my heart.

Fang rarely ever shows his emotions. He's Mr. Rock. A brick wall. I even have trouble reading his emotions, and I've known him for as long as I can remember. So, it takes a lot to get him worked up.

His face showed sadness mixed with anger and frustration. He looked like he wanted to punch something. It then hit me: I made Fang show his emotions like this. It really gives depth to a relationship, let me tell you.

I looked down again. "Max," I heard Fang say, and I looked up again. Now he looked more ticked than anything.

"Listen. I know you love the Flock, and would do anything for them. But this is important. For both of us. Sometimes, you have to be selfish and do what _you_ want to do, not what you should do. Besides, you've raised them well. I'm sure they'd be fine, and Iggy's matu – Nudge is mature enough to handle things. Please Max. Just take one night off from being the mother and leader you shouldn't have to be, and the teenager that you should be. Don't let our enemies dictate our lives."

Wow. That was a mouthful. Especially from Fang. Just look at what emotions can do him. I felt even guiltier, if that was possible, and began to reconsider.

I really don't want to leave the Flock. But they are all getting older, and more capable of caring for themselves…

"Max, _please_. Just for one night." One look into his eyes, and I was a goner.

"Fine. Let's go tell the rest of the Flock," I resolved, nervous at what could come from my decision. Fang gave me a genuine smile that made the sun shine brighter and my world spin just a little bit faster.

Fang and I swam over to the Flock, and told them of our plans, and to be careful. We're never completely safe.

They didn't even notice I was wearing Fang's T-shirt, and not my bathing suit. It worries me that they're getting soft, but I can't go back on Fang now.

Oddly enough, Nudge didn't look surprised that we were going on a date. It was suspicious, but I dismissed it as Angel had told her after she heard it in Fang's mind.

"Blech," Gazzy mimed throwing up into the water. "Too much mush. And cooties."

"Girls don't have cooties, Gaz," Nudge said, rolling her eyes.

"Oh well, Gazzy. Just think about it – with them gone, we'll be able to make as many bombs as we want," Iggy said devilishly. The Gasman immediately brightened.

"No, you won't," I said, splashing Iggy. He splashed back, but got Angel as well. It turned into an all-out Flock splash-fest, Ella joining us after getting through the first quarter of her book.

It was pretty much how we spent the rest of the day, with the occasional snack break.

There was one part, though, that Iggy, thinking I was still in my bathing suit, attempted to untie the back of my bikini top. It would have come off, if I had been still wearing it, too.

Remember how I said I wondered how long it would take for me to punch someone's lights out? Well, about 2 hours, judging from the size of Iggy's bruise on his eye.

"Time to head home, guys," my mom said. I rounded up the Flock and Ella, who all started to follow my mom back to the house. I was about to go, when I felt someone tug on my arm. I turned around to see Fang grabbing my arm.

I cocked an eyebrow. "What?"

He smirked. "I thought that they would never leave." With that, he pulled me into another kiss. I eagerly kissed back, having felt Fang-deprived all day since the kiss earlier.

Our kisses were hungry, and we began to get really into it, not really caring about whatever passers-by might see.

Our kisses were cut short, though, when a huge wave came crashing over both of our heads, sending us sprawling through the surf. Eventually, we came up on the shore.

One look at Fang sent me into peals of laughter. His long hair had gotten messed up from the waves, and crashing into the sand caused the different grains of sand to coat his hair.

Fang rolled his eyes, and tried to fix his hair, only to make it come out worse, making me laugh harder.

"C'mon," Fang said after a bit, "Let's head back." He stood up, and I followed in suit. We began walking back, not having to pick up any of the stuff that we had brought, as my mom had done that for us.

"You know," I said, nonchalantly, "Your hair doesn't look to bad like that." I began laughing again as Fang gave me a soft punch in the arm.

This vacation hasn't been so bad. Maybe with the date, it could get better.

…Or worse.

* * *

**Love it? Like it? Hate it? Review and tell me!**

**Also, concrit is much appreciated, as are suggestions. Thanks!**

**Oh, and is anyone else worried what might happen to their stories after "Fang" comes out? -raises hand- Tell me if I should continue it after "Fang" comes out, because, from what I'm hearing from the people who already got the book, it doesn't sound pretty DX**

**R&R?**


	12. Pre Date Arrangements

**A/N: Wow! ****Thanks for all of the amazingly fantastic reviews, everyone! You've been seriously stupendous. Thanks to** AndThenItBegan** for being my 200th reviewer!**

**212 reviews for 11 chapters? That's insane (in a _really_ good way!). Luffs you all lots! And to show it, next chapter I'll do another list of reviewers :D Thanks again, people!**

**This chapter is going to be the pre-date chapter - and next chapter** **will** **be the date! Goooo Faxness! Oh, and funnier. XD I'll try to update Friday, but I'm going to a birthday party for a friend, so we'll see if I can get it up.**

**This chapter is a bit more of a filler - not my favorite, but I have to get their date set up somehow. Next chapter will be loads better - or, at least, I hope it'll be ;)**

* * *

**Max POV**

After dinner last night, the Voice told me it was safe for me to finally sleep. Overjoyed, I fell asleep right on the couch in the living room, while the rest of the Flock was watching TV with my mom and Ella.

When I woke up this morning, however, I was in my bed, and thoroughly disoriented.

"Whar-mph?" I said, ever-so eloquently. I blinked the sunlight out of my eyes, just as my door opened, and Ella strode in with Nudge.

"Oh, good morning!" Ella said, chipperly. I wondered how late it was in the morning, especially if Nudge and Ella were already up and ready to go.

"Around 12:30," Angel said, walking into the room after obviously reading my mind. 12:30? I must have been dead to the world.

"How'd I get here?" I asked them, my words slurred by my post-sleep stupor.

"Fang brought you in here! It was so sweet, because you fell asleep right on his lap! You should've seen your mom's face, though – you _were_ in a kind of awkward position. Oh, so Fang picked you up, bridal style, which was soooo romantic, and carried you to your room! Your mom then told no one to disturb you and we had to be quiet alllll the time you were asleep which was rea-"

"Thanks, Nudge," I cut her off. Boy, could that girl talk. Nudge smartly closed her mouth, seeing the irritable mood I was in.

"What are you guys doing here, anyway?" I asked, wondering why they had bothered me.

"For your date with Fang tonight, silly! We need to get you ready! There's so much to do – clothes, shoes, make-up –"

"Whoa, whoa, wait. No. It's just a simple date with Fang. There's no need to get dressed up, girlified, and made-over for it." All three girls' faces crumpled. Well, more so Nudge's and Ella's faces, but Angel still looked disappointed.

"But, pleeeeease, Max?" Ella said, pleadingly.

"No," I said with finality. I really was excited to go on this date tonight (as much as I don't want to admit it), and I don't want anything to deter me from wanting to go on it.

"Well, maybe we could just do something nice with your hair then! Nothing over-the-top – we could just use my straightener and fix it up a bit," Ella said, trying to compromise.

I sat up in bed, fiddling with the ends of my hair. It didn't sound too bad, but still. It could be a new form of torture that I have yet to experience.

"Just the hair. Please, Max?" Angel asked sweetly. I sighed. I could always stop them if it got to be too much, I guess.

"Fine. But that is _it_. Got it?" I said, and Nudge squealed. Oh boy.

"Oh, and we were just wondering," Angel began, nudging Ella and Nudge with her elbow, "what would be the perfect date? You know, with Fang." Weird question, coming from Angel.

"Why?" I said, immediately suspicious of _something_. I mean, this child had learned from the best about plotting – _moi_.

"Just interested. Right?" Angel said, almost cuing the other girls.

"Right!" Nudge and Ella said in unison. It was still weird, but I guess it wouldn't hurt to say... I think.

"Um, okay then. Let's see…" I started out, and the girls became oddly attentive.

"Well, lots of food, for starters, at a decent enough restaurant. Flying is a plus. Oh, and Mom's chocolate chip cookies would be amazing. And no fights against enemies, plenty of Fang time," I said, starting to get into it.

"No disturbances, not having to be worried about our safety or the rest of the Flock's. Nothing formal, either. And just having some plain old fun with Fang would be great." Not to mention the kissing – but it's not like I was going to say that part of my perfect date with Fang aloud. I think I saw a grin flit across Angel's face, telling me that she most likely heard that. Whoops.

"But, uh, yea. And maybe sometime at the beach," I finished, slightly awkward.

"Cool, Max!" Nudge said, surprisingly short. "Well, we'll let you get dressed and get breakfast – or, er, lunch, I guess – and then we can start with your hair. Bye!" And with that, all three girls abruptly left.

Annoyed, I put my head back, bumping it against my headboard. I breathed in sharply, as I had forgotten about the good-sized bruise I still had back there.

While thinking back to the little encounter I just had with Ella, Nudge, and Angel, I concluded one thing: Girls are just as confusing as guys sometimes. I mean, why do they need to know about my ideal date? ...Unless they wanted to tell Fang, but probably not.

Then, I remembered Fang's behavior yesterday, and realized that girls are much easier to understand than guys. Or, at least, compared to Fang they are.

()()()()()()()()

**Fang POV**

"Well?" I said, trying not to let my impatience and eagerness show through my emotionless mask as Ella, Nudge, and Angel skittered into my room.

"Well, of course she doesn't want anything fancy," Ella said, her Max-like eyes sparkling with the joys of playing matchmaker. I nearly snorted – I didn't expect anything more than casual from Max.

Then, Nudge got started.

"Oh, and Max really would like to go out to eat. Like, a lot. Ooh, and she would love to go flying with you, she actually _said_ plenty of Fang time, going on the beach is a maybe, and her mom's chocolate chip cookies would really make her happy. Plus, no disturbances from any enemies, and not having to worry about everyone's safety, but I really don't think we can do much on that front, seeing as Max is always paranoid. And she just wants to have overall fun with you. Now, do you want to make it a little more romantic? Because, Max's ideal date is sweet and all, but where are all the flowers? The romance? The sparkly fireworks? The-" I held my hand up, and Nudge stopped.

"It's fine. Thanks," I said, keeping it short, as usual. "I'm good now. You can go."

Disappointed that they couldn't help more, Ella and Nudge left the room in a huff. Angel lingered, though.

"She's really excited for the date tonight, Fang," Angel said quietly. "She really can't wait. And, just so you know, any time spent with you, date or not, would be ideal to Max."

"Thanks, Ange," I said, standing up and ruffling her golden curls. "Now, I have to get our date plans set."

Angel nodded. "Good luck, then! Oh, and just to let you know, she kept on thinking about kissing you on tonight's date," she said, and scurried off to do whatever six year-old mind readers like to do before she could see my reaction to the last bit. Which, truthfully, was part of my own perfect date with Max – along with nearly everything else they said Max wanted to do. It's weird how we're on the same wavelength almost all the time.

Before leaving my room, I began to make a mental checklist of the things I wanted to do with Max tonight. I nearly grinned to myself – tonight was going to be perfect, and I was going to make sure of it.

And then, at the end, after I sweep Max off of her feet, I will tell her that I love her.

()()()()()()()

**Max POV**

"Ow," I muttered, once again, as the burning metal of Ella's purple straightener hit the side of my face, surely leaving an angry red mark where it hit.

"Sorry, Max," Ella said, "but it wouldn't happen as much if you didn't move around."

I huffed. "I shouldn't even have agreed to this."

"Hey, we're letting you off easy. Just think of what else we could have done," Nudge said, obviously still miffed that I didn't want to do anything other than my hair.

After I had gotten dressed and ate, the girls had me pick out what I was going to wear. That should have taken a lot less time than it did, seeing as I only own one pair of jeans and a tank top that still smelled like the ocean. But, no. They had to make sure whether or not I had any other clothing that was "more acceptable."

Then, they had me get in the shower (two showers in less than 24 hours? Someone call the press!) so that they could fix my hair while it was wet, which I thought was pretty pointless.

This had only taken up until about 4:30. And yet, it's 6:30. How long does it take to do freakin' hair?

Angel giggled at my annoyed thoughts.

"You know, Max," Angel said, "We're going to have to get you a new bathing suit now, after what happened yesterday." That's right – I finally have an excuse to get a new bathing suit.

Nudge paused in her pacing. "What happened? ZOMG, that's right, you were wearing your a T-shirt yesterday after a while – what happened to your bathing suit?"

"Oh, er, nothing," I said, not wanting to bring it up.

Nudge understood, and didn't say any more about it, except for some mumblings that sounded suspiciously like "new bikini." Over my dead body – I'm going to be the one picking the bathing suit out this time.

"And… you… are… done," Ella said, putting her straightener of death down. Why would girls subject themselves to this _every_ day?

She gave me her hand-held mirror, and I looked into it. I didn't look too bad, I guess. My hair was definitely straighter, and it framed my face more. But I really don't think this was all worth it, judging by the small burn marks on the sides of my face.

"Now, if we could just add some blush…" Nudge said, but trailed off when I glared at her. "Or not."

"Hey, Max," Gazzy said, as he came into the room, with Iggy following, "Fang says he's ready whenever you are."

I glanced at the clock. It was a few minutes before 7. Why did it take so long to do my hair?

"Because you moved around so much, Max. Not to mention your hair was a tangled mess," Angel quipped, answering my thoughts. Oh. Whatever. God, even in my thoughts I'm turning into Fang!

"Alright, then, I'm coming," I said, standing up and starting to head out Ella's door. Everyone else followed.

I came down the steps to see Fang standing there in his usual black clothing. The shadow of a grin flitted across his face.

"Hey," he said when I reached the bottom of the stairs. "Ready to go?" I nodded, and turned to see my mom armed with a camera. As soon as I faced her, she began taking pictures like crazy, the flashes from the camera blinding Fang and me.

"Mom. Mom. Mom! Stop taking pictures," I said, and my picture-happy mom lowered her camera, smiling.

"Have fun, you two. Be back by 11:30 – that's the curfew around here."

"Alright mom. And all of you," I said, addressing the Flock now, "be good. And keep your eyes open for anything suspicious. Got it?" They all nodded their heads vigorously. I hope I can trust them.

"Okay. We'll be back at 11:30, then," I said as Fang threw me my sweatshirt to put on and cover up my wings.

"Bye," I called over my shoulder as Fang opened the door, and we left the house.

Tonight is either going to be the best night of my short bird-kid life, or one of the crappier nights... I seriously hope for the best. Although, we all know how hard it is for anything good to happen when it concerns me.

* * *

**R&R?  
Who knows, with more reviews, maybe I'll get the next chapter up faster ;D**

**Oh, and for those of you who noticed my A/N last chapter about me meeting the Lightning Thief cast, YESH! I did meet Logan Lerman!!! He even shook my hand, and I got his autograph! As I said, so freakin' amazing :D He should be Fang (right,** Krabby Patties**? :D) in the MR movie! Oh, and I met Alexandra (Annabeth) Brandon (Grover) and Jake (Luke)! I got all of their autographs as well ;D I can't wait to see The Lightning Thief!**

**Reviews are my drug of choice!... That and chocolate, but we don't want to go there ;) So, review, por favor! (I had an espanol test today XD I'm chock full of it now.)**


	13. Max and Fang's Date

**A/N: Hello, luffly readers and reviewers! Thanks much to everyone who has reviewed!**

**Here is a list of reviewers and a response to their last reviews. The number next to their name is how many times they reviewed since last time:**

**Weelich (x2): The Lightning Thief's out today *does happy dance* I'm definitely seeing it ASAP! Well, thanks for adding it to Alert, and I hope it works this time :) Yea, cough medicine and me don't work out. I took too much of it once, and I was acting really, well, drunk-ish, so my dad, who's a state trooper, gave me a high test XD Fun times, fun times. Thanks for reviewing! And I hope the cold you have gets better ;)  
****ellabella89: Haha, thank you, thank you *bows*. Haha, yupp, I've seen him on America's Most Wanted – actually, it's more than one cereal killer – their names are Lucky, Buzz, Tony, etc. ;D  
****Poetry of a Bird Kid: Haha, thanks, I'm glad you like it!  
****IPityYou (x2): Thanks! Glad you like it :D  
****ThunderClouds7: Hah, thanks! I was like, Hm, let's put Gazzy's skillage to use!  
****Krabby Patties (x3): Haha, it's alright, Logan Lerman is worth an entire review ;D Yea, I **_**try**_** to keep Nudge on track – a lot of people just have her spewing words, and it gets to be like a word association thing when she speaks. And, thanks, I have re-read so many scenes from MR to get the characters right XD I hope it pays off! Oh, yea, it kind of kills me too. I mean, yea, Bambi eyes can be irresistible, but if it's to get Max to do something she really feels strongly against, then I don't think it'd fly (heh, get it? Punny XP). I figured that hair would be enough, though. Aaaand here's the date! Oh, and thanks – I loooove long reviews.  
****giddy 4 iggy: Perhaps. It's an idea. Thanks for reviewing!  
****Jojii-chan (x2): Yea, Logan Lerman = uncharacteristic mega-squeeing from me X) Thanks, and I understand! I'm happy you like it!  
****bleachgirl4 (x3): Hm, I've never used a straightener before. I just used what my friends have told me about them XD My hair's super-straight, limp, and bleh. So, yea… Hope those burn marks are okay, then! And we'll seeeee about their date!  
****Nighthawk21 (x3): Aaaand here's the date! Thanks for reviewing all those times :)  
****AndThenItBegan (x3): It was no problem – thanks for being the 200****th****! And I'll try to :D  
****Bite-me-grr: Down with the Bieber! Or, as my brother calls him, the Beaver XD. And, I'm glad you like my story! And, yea, I have a friend whose parents are about 15 years apart – it's a good thing they are older, because it'd be pretty creeper otherwise. Thanks!  
****turtlelover0511 (x3): Thanks, and yupp! The movie's out today, yay!  
****mongosquishy (x3): Haha, everyone's been saying they're jealous XD I'll make sure to tell people if they ever do another tour for the next movie! Heh, and here's the chapter, where you'll see how things play out!  
****nm-maximumride4eva (x3): All in good time, all in good time… Most Faithful Reviewer ;D  
****21reeree21 (x2): I'm glad you liked it! And you'll see what happens on their date…!  
****The Layman (x3): Thanks :) I figured someone would notice, but I kind of needed that filler there, heh. And here's the date!  
****Turn-On-The-Stars: Haha, Justine! Nice :D Yea, Nudge reminds me of one of my friends, and I think she'd do that too! It'd be funny if your cousin did fall for it XD Hm, sounds like an interesting story. Do tell :) Thanks!  
****fangs-1girl (x2): I'm happy you love it, and I'm continuing it!  
****Hersheygirl102: Thanks, I'm glad you like it!  
****noname=P: Um, I'm glad you like him…? But thanks, I'm glad you like it!  
****Tsparks158: Yupp. Gazzy rocks :D  
****animeteen221: It would be! We should all try an experiment to see how many Bieber-fans would do it! (No offense to readers who do, though!)  
****OoDarkCookiesoO: Heh, nice dream XD Haha, thank you sooo much, once again!  
****Smileybox: Hahah, thanks! Glad you like it.  
kate. emri****. nudge. (x3): Aw, I'm sorry I disappointed you. But at least this chapter is the date chapter! Thanks for reviewing!  
****Amanda: And the date is here! Thanks!  
****Iggy4ever: Heh, yea, you'll see this chapter just how good the date is… ;)  
****AkatsukiKingdomHeartsAnime: Haha, go Iggy! Got to love that perverted blind, pyromaniac chef bird-boy!  
****thunderspark12: Mmm, I wish I had a Snickers bar now…  
****MaxandFang101: The Lightning Thief's out today, it's out today, it's out today! I can't wait to see it ;D Thanks for reviewing.  
****Emmaline: Here is the date! Thanks for reviewing :)  
****katiegirl101199 (x2): Haha, take your time with the PM – it's all good :) And thanks! Glad you like it!  
****SarcasticBookLover23: Yea, Logan Lerman was amazing. :D I wish I could have never washed it, but that would have been a wee bit unhygienic! And, wow, thanks for the compliment. It means a lot to me, truly. I will try to read your stories now – I did read the one, and I have to get to the other! Thanks once again – it really made me all fuzzums inside :)  
****katy: Thanks, and I am!  
****justplainawesome: Haha, I love your review! Have fun with your new book – and with all of those other books on your bookshelf! And, er, I'm a bit scared now. I'mma go grab my friend's dad's mace now…! Thanks!  
****holycrap: Hah, I love him too now! He was so nice! And I'm updating!  
****lala: Alright, thanks! I think I will keep writing this! Thanks ;)  
****Depressed Psychos: Well, I'm glad you found my story and that you like it! Yea, Logan Lerman was incredible, fo sho XD It'd be so cool if he played Fang, because, like you said, the 'Dark and Silent' thing going on. And I can't wait to read "Fang," even though I heard it's really sad. I hope this cheers you up, then!  
****Rachel: Yea, it was kind of a downer that she wasn't blonde. And she's 22, playing a 12 year-old. Still, she seems like a good actress, so… yea.**

**I hope I didn't miss anyone... Tell me if I missed you, and I'll mention you next chapter! Sorry if I did, or I messed up on your name...**

**Now, onto the date!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything! Nada! Zip! Zilch!**

* * *

**Max POV**

I could hear the girls giggling manically as Fang and I walked away from the house.

We had decided to walk to wherever Fang was taking me, instead of freaking out some innocent bystanders by flying.

As we were walking, Fang's hand grabbed mine and we began to stride hand-in-hand down the darkening street. I really hoped my hand wouldn't start sweating, since my heart had sped up as soon as he grabbed it.

It's ridiculous, isn't it? Put me in a fight, and I'm fine. Put me on a date with an incredible guy, though, and I turn into a puddle of lovey, mushy goo.

We walked in a comfortable silence, and I almost felt bad when I broke it.

"So, where are we going?" I asked curiously.

Fang, not even looking towards me, replied, "You'll see."

Oh, so it was a surprise? Why am I getting a foreboding feeling from this? Maybe it's because when we were younger, Iggy told me he had a surprise for me in the closet, and a bomb blew up in my face. Iggy probably still has bruises from my wrath after that "accident."

Iggy… Oh God, he better not blow up that beach house while we're gone. And the rest of the Flock better not make too much trouble for my mom…

While I was lost in my thoughts, I began to get the feeling that Fang and I were being watched. The hairs on the back of my neck began to stand up, kind of like what happens when Fang decides to pull a ninja and sneak up on me.

"Fang," I mumbled, trying to make it look like I wasn't talking.

"It's nothing, Max. Probably paranoia. Relax," Fang said, trying to get me to calm down. Sure, paranoia. My paranoia has saved all of our butts plenty of times.

"Just to let you know, your mom gave me Ella's phone again." A smirk passed over Fang's face for a moment. Wait, what? Ella's phone – oh. Right. The little incident from the other night. I grinned.

"Nice one, funny man," I said, still smiling, and punched Fang on the shoulder with the hand that wasn't holding his. A smirk came on Fang's face again, but this time it stayed.

I still couldn't get the feeling that we were being followed out of my head, though, no matter how hard I tried.

()()()()()()

After a few minutes more minutes of enjoying each other's company in silence, Fang and I reached a nice restaurant that was just off of the boardwalk.

"Here," Fang said, pulling me into restaurant. It was a tiny, beachy-type restaurant, one with plenty of windows upon, allowing for quick U and A's if needed.

Once inside, we were almost immediately seated by a motherly-looking hostess – which Gazzy only realized the other day that it was not just a type of junk food.

"Here, kids," she said handing us both menus after seating us across from each other at a tiny two-person table. "Someone will be here to serve you in a minute." We nodded, and the hostess walked away.

"So," I began, taking in the fairly large crowd in the restaurant, "why here?"

Fang shrugged his shoulders. "Heard it had good food. Low prices. Figured we could check it out." Leave it to Fang to explain things in 3 short sentences.

"Oh," I said, and was about to ask him how much food we could order without freaking out the restaurant owners, when our waiter came.

"Hey," he drawled out, bored looking – that is, until at he glanced at our table and saw Fang. "Oh, _heyyy_. What do you guys want to order?" the young waiter said, fixing his eyes on Fang. I was wondering why he was doing that, until I saw the back of our waiter's T-shirt. It read, "We're here, we're queer, get over it."

I had to stifle my laughter after that. The guy was going to hit on Fang. And Fang, not having seen the back of the shirt yet, had a near-confused look on his face, as to why the guy was coming onto him.

"Uh, I'll just have the lasagna and a cup of Coke," Fang said, glancing down at his menu and trying to move away from the guy's line of vision. I was a bit curious as to why Fang didn't order a large pile of food, but I decided to just go along with what he said, in case Fang had anything else planned.

The waiter scribbled down Fang's order, and reluctantly turned towards me to get my order. When his back turned towards Fang, I saw Fang's eyes read the back of the shirt quickly, and, if I didn't know better, Fang might have paled a bit.

"I'll just have the same," I said, short and to the point, trying to get the waiter to leave.

"Alright," he said, scribbling down my order. I expected him to leave after that, but he then turned to Fang. "Are you sure that's going to be enough for you? I mean, you look so _strong_, not to mention handsome. And you need to add some meat on those cute bones of yours."

I stared at the waiter's back, my mouth slightly ajar. Fang kept his cool, though, and replied, "Yea."

"Okay, your orders will be here soon," the waiter said, then flounced away.

When he was a good distance away, I began to chuckle quietly. Fang sent me his special death glare.

"Why the small food order?" I finally managed to get out. Fang just shrugged his shoulders.

"You'll see," he said shortly. It's really annoying when Fang gets even more mysterious than usual. "At least the waiter wasn't hitting on you. But, then again, who would ever hit on you?" Fang said, smirking to let me know he was kidding.

"Oh, I'm guessing you forgot about Trey and Chad," I said, smirking myself when I saw Fang's eyes tighten a bit. "Do you want me to ask the waiter where he got his shirt? Maybe we can get you one, too."

"Ha ha," Fang said dryly, "I thought we already had this discussion the other day – I'm not gay. And I thought I might have proved that to you." Ah, right. The Closest Incident.

Suddenly, I decided to do something that Maximum Ride never does: flirt.

"Oh, really? Maybe you'll just have to prove it to me again." Fang looked slightly taken aback at my playful tone, which just about killed me to use. He opened his mouth to say something, but then the waiter, whose name I now saw was Damien, came with our food.

"Here you go. Eat up," he said cheerily, sending a few flirtatious glances towards Fang before leaving. Fang and I fell upon the food, ravenous. We were done in a few minutes flat, including our drinks. I don't think I'll ever get used to seeing peoples' astonished stares while we eat our food.

"That was really good. Almost as good as my mom's food," I said, which was a huge compliment coming from me. Fang nodded, but then his eyes narrowed. I found out why a minute later.

"Whew, you guys are fast eaters!" Damien said. "Then again," he said, turning towards Fang, "I bet you do a _lot_ of things fast. Like me."

It took all of my Maximum self-control to not burst out laughing at that point. Fang's face had gone from stoic, to horrified, to disgusted, and back to stoic in about five seconds.

"Can we have the ch-check?" I said, trying not to laugh, but nearly failing. The waiter looked disappointed, but gave up the check after scribbling on it.

"Come back soon," he said, winking at Fang before sauntering away. I looked at the check, which had a phone number hurriedly scribbled on the bottom, with _Call me_, above it.

That time, I couldn't stop myself from laughing.

"What?" Fang asked, looking slightly irritated. I showed him the bottom of the check, still laughing. A grin twitched on Fang's mouth.

"Oh," he said, then tried to casually take out money that Mom had given us to pay for whatever we needed.

So far, this date's going pretty well. Especially since I didn't feel like we were being watched anymore.

Maybe everything was going to go right… Yea, and maybe Total will eat generic dog food.

()()()()()()()()

**Dr. Martinez's 3****rd**** Person POV**

"Now, you kids behave while I go out to buy more food," Dr. Martinez said sternly, the smile on her face not matching up with her tone of voice.

"We will," Ella said quickly. "I'll keep an eye on the younger ones… and Iggy."

Dr. Martinez nodded quickly before turning to leave, glancing back to see Angel sprawled on the floor, watching television, Nudge reading a teen magazine, and Iggy and Gazzy fiddling with something that Dr. Martinez really didn't want to know about.

She closed the door behind her, hoping that the kids would be fine while she stepped out to replenish the quickly-eaten food supplies. It was a good thing the government was helping her with the kids, or else her bank account would have been empty from buying just food alone.

Dr. Martinez walked quickly to her car that was parked on the street. She felt that something just wasn't right.

She was correct in feeling this way, for as soon as she was about to open the car door, out of the shadows a figure emerged, unheard by Maximum's mother.

Her muffled scream as the figure grabbed her remained unheard as well.

()()()()()()()

**Max's POV**

After the dinner – which was really a snack to Fang and me – we headed off to the boardwalk.

Now I know why Fang had us get "small" dinners. We were walking up and down the boardwalk, buying food from every place we saw. Right now, it was chocolate chip cookies.

"Oh, God," I said, my words muffled through a mouthful of cookie, "these are almost as good as my mom's." Again, one of the highest compliments I could give. So far, this was my perfect date. Hey, wait a minute…

Fang gave me his amazing smile that made my heart beat faster, and I really hoped that the hand he was holding didn't start sweating.

Oh, right. Perfect date.

"So, how much did the girls help you with figuring out my perfect date," I said casually. If Fang was surprised, he didn't let it show.

"They didn't help me," Fang said, just as nonchalantly. Sure, Fang. I'm onto you.

I was about to tell those thoughts to Fang, when I realized that I _really_ had to go to the bathroom. I guess the iced lemonade, the large Coke at dinner, or the root beer didn't help much.

"Uh, Fang? Can we stop for a sec? I have to go to the bathroom."

"Sure," Fang said, then continued flippantly. "We can stop for lots of secs."

Awkward silence ensued after Fang's words ended.

"Well, uh, yea. Let's just head over to the bathroom," Fang said, trying to change the subject from his bad choice of words.

Next to a store, there was a unisex bathroom – you know, where it doesn't matter whether you're a boy or a girl, anyone can use it.

"I'll be out in a minute," I told Fang before going into the very tiny one-person bathroom.

I closed the door behind me, and tried to be as fast as I could. I really wanted to get back to the date as soon as possible.

After I was done, though, I stared perplexedly at the sink. It didn't look like any other type of sink I've used before. For one, there were no faucets. It didn't even really look like a sink, but there was nothing else in the bathroom. Another thing was that the soap was right in the middle of the sink, on top of the drain.

I figured it was probably just a different sink that I've never seen before. I shrugged it off, picked up the soap, and started washing my hands without the water.

It was a weird type of soap as well, but, considering that us bird-kids aren't the most hygienic people ever, it could just be something I've never seen before as well.

The soap then began to disappear without the use of water, much to my fascination. I guess that could explain why the sink didn't have faucets.

I put the soap back as the rest of it disappeared on my hands, and left the bathroom.

"I'm going too," Fang said as I came out, and went in after me.

I stood, waiting for a bit. Eventually Fang came out, and used the sanitation wipes on his hands that were next to the door. I didn't bother to use them, since I washed my hands.

I looked at Fang curiously, wondering why he didn't just wash his hands with the sink. Fang saw my gaze, and asked, "What?"

"Why didn't you just wash your hands in the sink?"

"Sink? There's no sink in there," Fang said, looking slightly amused.

"Yea there is," I said, and to prove my point I squeezed myself and Fang into the bathroom, and pointed the sink out to him.

Fang just stared. And stared. Finally, he turned towards me, looking like he was trying not to laugh.

"What did you wash your hands with?"

"That," I said, and pointed to the soap in the middle of the sink.

"Oh." Fang looked like he was trying hard not to laugh again. "Max," he started, his voice sounding strained from his attempting not to laugh. I was beginning to get irritated.

"That 'sink' is a urinal. A special toilet for guys."

"Yea," I said, feeling like an idiot for thinking a toilet was a sink. But wait then the soap...

"Well your, ah, 'soap' is actually a urinal cake. After guys urinate on it, it dissolves a bit and deodorizes the bathroom."

Comprehension dawned on my face, and I tried to uphold my couldn't-care-less attitude.

"You mean, I was washing my hands with something guys pee on?" I said, feeling horrified and embarrassed all at the same time. Fang nodded slowly, trying not to laugh.

"Well," I said, "I'm just going to grab one of those hand sanitizers." With that, I left the cramped bathroom, and hurriedly grabbed a ton of wipes and began to wipe my hands off vigorously.

Fang came out of the bathroom and chuckled lowly. "Only you, Max," he said while shaking his head.

I punched his arm with a super-sanitized hand. "Yea, but that's what you love about me," I teased him.

Fang suddenly looked serious. "C'mon," he said, abruptly changing the subject. "Let's hit the beach."

()()()()()()()()

Fang and I were walking down the beach, our hands still intertwined. I swear, if we didn't let go of each other's hands soon, they'd be stuck together. Not that I would really mind, though. I'm just kind of surprised that he still wanted to hold my hand after the little accident with the "soap."

Suddenly, Fang let go of my hand and stooped down. I stopped walking as well, curious as to what he was doing.

Fang then unexpectedly whipped around, and threw sand at me.

"Augh!" I exclaimed, surprised. In the dark, I could still see Fang's radiant smile from the full moon's light. He snickered and stood up, expecting me to forgive and forget. Uh-uh, no way.

Quick as lightning, I picked up my own handful of sand and threw it at Fang, hitting him square in the chest. Bull's eye. I smirked at him in triumph.

Fang then got a mischievous look in his eyes that I did not like. Uh-oh.

"Oomph," I breathed out, as Fang tackled me into the sand. He stood up, satisfied, while I glared at him from my spot in the sand.

Well, I couldn't just let him win. So, I side-swiped his legs with my own, knocking Fang's legs out from under him and making him fall in the sand across from me.

Laughing, I stood up. An all-out sand battle had begun. Fang started to pelt sand at me from his spot on the ground, bidding his time until he could stand up.

I, naturally, began to throw sand back at him. Suddenly, though, Fang disappeared.

"Fang! Not fair. You can't use your powers!" I yelled, trying to see indents in the sand where he could be. I closed my eyes, relying on my ears. I heard the _fwap_ of large wings from behind me. Before I could do anything other than to open my eyes, though, Fang was visible again and hurling sand at me from the air.

Two could play at that game. Grinning, I threw my sweatshirt off and opened my own wings up. No one should really be able to see us, since the beach was basically deserted and we were far away from the boardwalk. I gathered as much sand as I could, and took to the air.

Using my wings to propel me higher than Fang, I released all of the sand I had gathered in my arms when I was right above him. It his Fang right between his wings, causing him to drop a few feet before regaining his altitude.

"Crap," I muttered, seeing that he still had a lot of sand in his arms. How he kept it from falling through his arms, though, I'll never know.

I swooped towards the ground as quickly as I could to grab more sand, with a huge, goofy grin on my face. This was the most fun I'd had in a while.

"Oh no you don't," I heard Fang say as I streaked by him to get to the ground. When I was a few yards above the ground, I felt Fang drop onto my back with an _oof_.

I immediately collapsed and tumbled onto the sand, bringing Fang with me. We rolled around a bit until our momentum ran out.

When we stopped rolling, Fang was on top of me, in quite an awkward position. We were both laughing hard, giddy from the short free fall we had, and the fun of sand fights.

As soon as we finished laughing and had caught our breaths, Fang steadily looked into my eyes. It was actually pretty unnerving, having this amazingly perfect guy staring at me so intensely.

"Max," he began, and looked around as if to see if there was anything to interrupt him. I realized later that it was probably exactly what he was doing. "I've been trying for a while now to get the guts to say this to you. Even when I did have the guts, it just wasn't the right time to tell you. But, now, after I've had this incredible date with you, I think it's the perfect time to tell you."

I curiously looked at him, and Fang took a deep breath.

"Maximum Ride, I love you."

Wait –what? I felt my jaw drop a bit. Fang continued on.

"I love everything about you, as corny and cliché it sounds. Your attitude, your smile, your eyes, the way you care about the rest of the Flock – everything."

I nearly stopped breathing. Fang, uncharacteristically, gave me one of the most emotion-filled speeches I have ever heard him, or even anyone else, say. For one rare moment, I was speechless.

Seeing that I wasn't saying anything, Fang added quickly, "I know you might not be ready to say it back, but I don't ca-"

I silenced Fang by bringing my lips to his.

"I love you too, Fang" I said, pulling my lips away from Fang's. A smile lit up his face, one of the largest I've ever seen on him before.

Fang pulled us up into a sitting position in the sand. He then proceeded to kiss my neck, leaving me feeling tingly all over. Hormones: the bane and blessing of teenage existence.

"I was worried you wouldn't say it back," he said, pulling back and looking into my eyes, before we kissed again, long and hard. I wrapped my arms around his neck, and tangled my fingers in his dark hair, letting myself to get caught up in the kiss.

This is definitely the perfect date. Fun, flying, food - oh yea, and Fang loves me. I'd say a win all around.

* * *

**R&R?**

**How was the date? Good, disappointing, funny, so-so, perfect...? Tell me, guys, since, and I really hate to admit this, but I've never been on a date before... Yea... I used all of my knowledge of '80s movies (Go Molly Ringwald!) to do this. I hope it turned out well...**

**Oh, does anyone think I need a beta reader? Just curious...**

**Well, off to a birthday party, when I should be going to see Percy Jackson. Hmph.**

**Review and tell me your opinions, criticism, etc. I'm a big girl - I can take it! Thanks!**


	14. After the Date

**A/N: Hello amazing readers and reviewers! I am so sorry for taking so long to update, but a little thing called life caught up to me.**

**Wow, you all were amazing with reviewing last chapter. Thank you all who read, and thanks even more to those who reviewed, favorited, and alerted!**

**I finally got to see The Lightning Thief! Mmm, 2 hours of Logan Lerman? I can deal with the looped-up plot, as long as I have something to stare at XD Anyone notice that my icon is now the poster I got signed by the cast?**

**Also, I got Fang: AMRN from the U.K. last week, and finished it the day I got it. I'm not giving any spoilers, so no fear! **

**Oh, and I'm probably going to do a reviewer list next chapter!**

**Now, onto the rest of the night!**

* * *

**Max POV**

Fang and I began to walk back to the beach house, hand in hand, both of us uncharacteristically smiling like idiots. Could we help it, though? We were on a love high, one of the perks of being hormone-filled teenagers.

We would have flown back home, but the full moon was too bright for us to go unnoticed by innocent bystanders. Hopefully, our little Sand Battle went unnoticed.

I might have quite a few, erm, hickeys tomorrow morning – or even now. I really hope no one in the Flock, Ella, or my mom notice – especially my mom. That could lead to one too many awkward conversations.

I didn't feel like we were being watched, but that made me begin to worry again, tainting my love-high. What if the thing that was watching us earlier went after everyone else?

"Max," Fang said, pulling me out of my reverie, "You okay? You seem out of it. Is it the Voice?"

I shook my head. "No, I'm just worried, that's all. I hope everyone is alright. I'd feel terrible if something happened while we were off having fun…" I trailed off, biting my lip. Fang stopped short, nearly jerking my hand out of his.

"Max," Fang began seriously. Ever notice that he says my name a lot? "I'm sure everything is fine. The Flock are all old enough to protect themselves, and others. So stop worrying, and _relax_."

Okay, sure. I can relax. I'm the Queen of Cool. Nothing's bothering me. I'm as cool as a cucumb- Oh, I'm just going to cut the crap – who am I kidding? I can't relax. I'll try to, though, for Fang.

I released the tension in my shoulders, and tried to look like I wasn't worrying. "Alright. Relaxing now. Sure."

Fang grinned even wider at me, causing butterflies to flutter like crazy in my stomach, and then we continued to walk down the dark street.

It was pretty deserted on the street, seeing as the curfew was getting close and this was a pretty quiet beach town. So, I was pretty surprised when I saw a lady walking her dog when she passed under one of the streetlights, walking towards us. Fang saw her as well, and paused once again.

"Let's go another way," he mumbled, and made to turn around. I laughed.

"What? Scared of a middle-aged lady and her dog?" I said, still chortling. Fang straightened indignantly.

"No, it's just…" he trailed off. I rolled my eyes.

"Come on," I said, and pulled him down the street to his slight protest. Fang was just acting strange, but I decided to ignore it.

We passed the lady and her dog as we were under a streetlight. Fang, strangely enough, averted his eyes, while the lady looked at us dead on as her dog sniffed a fire hydrant.

"Hey, you look familiar," she said to us, just as we were about to leave the circle of light the streetlight was casting onto the ground. I felt Fang's shoulders tense as she said that, and I stopped to turn around and look at the lady.

"Excuse me?" I said as icily as I could, which was pretty darn intimidating if I do say so myself. The lady shrunk back a bit, but kept her gaze on Fang instead.

"Not you. Him," she said, and pointed at Fang with the hand not holding the leash to her Labrador-looking dog. I glanced at Fang, and I saw he had his stoic face on again.

"Sorry," he said shortly and just as icily as me, "but you're mistaken."

"No, no, no," the lady said shaking her head, "You're the kid who took my egg roll off of me a few nights ago at the Chinese food place. You're lucky that I didn't report you."

My eyes widened infinitesimally as I remembered that Fang had looked disheveled when he came home from getting the Chinese food the other night. Did he seriously mug a lady for an egg roll?

I could tell that he in fact did, from the way his eyes also nearly imperceptibly widened as well. The lady couldn't have been able to tell though.

"Um, sorry ma'am," I said, trying to play the polite and innocent card now to get Fang out of trouble, "but my boyfriend was with me a couple of nights ago, in a state park – not a Chinese food place. So, um, I hope you find who stole your egg roll, but it wasn't my boyfriend." Fang nodded, trying to look innocent as well. Psh. The only way we could be innocent was if you took away the past ten years of our life. But, really, an egg roll? She was freaking out about that?

The lady still looked suspicious, but then decided to drop the matter seeing as her dog was becoming impatient and pulling on the leash.

"I'll believe you. For now, at least." And with that, the lady flipped her dark brown hair at us and walked down the street in the opposite direction, dog in tow. Now, I've been through many weird experiences, but this one nearly takes the cake.

Fang and I began to walk in the opposite direction, back towards the beach house, in silence. When I made sure that the lady wasn't following us or could hear us, I confronted Fang.

"You _stole_ a middle-aged lady's egg roll? Why the _hell_ would you do that?" I said. I mean, I guess I should have been angrier, but it was actually pretty funny.

Fang just shrugged. "I knew they were your favorite, and the restaurant didn't have any left. So, I tried nicking that lady's egg roll out of her bag when she wasn't looking. She somehow caught me, though, and started beating me with her purse."

Fang grimaced, and I let this sink in.

"So you tried to steal an egg roll from a harmless lady for me, and end up getting beaten up by her," I said slowly. Fang nodded as I started cracking up. "Again, why the hell would you do that?"

Fang grinned, and said, "Because I love you."

That got me to shut up.

()()()()()()

Fang and I got into the house just around 11:30. I was worried when I came in and just saw Iggy, Nudge, and Ella sitting on the couch in the living room, until I realized that Angel and Gazzy were probably asleep. But where was my mom?

"ZOMG, they're back!" Nudge squealed when we came in the door.

"How was it? Magical? Romantic? Or completely suckish because, no offense Fang, but you need some romantic help. I mean, who would want to take a girl out on a date and not get her flowers? And-" Nudge would have continued, if it weren't for Iggy cutting her off.

"Nudge, I don't want to be blind and deaf," he complained, screwing his unseeing eyes up. Nudge blushed, but this time kept her mouth shut.

"Code?" I said promptly, and they all mumbled it at the same time. I knew they were irked, but I couldn't take any chances.

"Where are the others?" I then asked hurriedly as Fang went off into the kitchen to get a glass of water, his hand leaving mine for the first time in a while. Iggy followed him in, arousing some suspicion from me.

Ella waved her hands towards the stairs, saying, "Angel and Gazzy went to bed a bit ago, and so did Mom." She then bit her lip, and looked worried. "I think Mom's sick again. She never really completely recovered after that last encounter with Mr. Chu.

"She left to get groceries, and came back a bit later, and didn't say much. When she did say things though, Mom sounded… off. Then, she kind of just went to bed after a little bit," Ella finished, her brow furrowed.

I felt bad for my mom. She's been through so much, and all because of me.

"Do you think someone should check on her?" I said worriedly. Ella shook her head.

"Nah, we should just let her get some rest. Iggy can make us our meals, if he doesn't mind, until Mom gets better."

I nodded. "Yea. Well, I'm going to go check on Angel and the Gasman," I said, and began to head up the steps.

Poking my head into their separate rooms, I saw both of them sleeping like, well, angels. I smiled, and headed upstairs to check on my mom. I mean, it wouldn't be so bad just to check.

While heading up the stairs, pretty much silently, I heard a strange whirring noise coming from my mom's room. At first I thought it was the air conditioner, but then I realized that it was only coming from her room.

Once I reached my mom's door, the whirring had gotten noticeably louder. Yup, it was definitely coming from in there. Tentatively, I stuck my hand out, and twisted the door knob. The door knob, though, squeaked when I turned it, alerting anyone to my presence.

I cursed, and barged in, not caring anymore about the noise I made, seeing as my ambush was ruined.

When I came in, though, the whirring stopped. I did a quick 360 around the room, and saw nothing but my mom's sleeping figure in the bed, rising and falling a bit with every breath, and some furniture. Mom must be tired, because she didn't even wake to me barging in.

Maybe I'm just being paranoid, like Fang said. It could be that – or something could be seriously wrong.

I prowled around the room, looking for something, anything wrong. Nothing seemed out of place, though, from the first time I did a sweep of the house when we first came here.

Backing out of the room, but still suspicious, I closed the door. The whirring did not start up again, to my relief. It could have been my stress and paranoia… or not.

Sighing over this crap called my life, I headed back down the two flights of stairs, to the living room.

()()()()()()()

**Fang POV**

"So," Iggy said as he swaggered into the kitchen behind me, "What happened? Did you confess your undying love to her?" He swooned dramatically, then said in a falsetto voice, "Oh, Maximum!"

I glared at him and got my glass of water. Tonight was, to say the least, perfect. The date was great, I think Max enjoyed it, and she did love me back. A win all around – except for the waiter hitting on me, Max's little urinal cake incident, and Max finding out about me trying to nick a lady's egg roll.

I took a sip of my water, and almost spit it out again when Iggy deadpanned, "What base did you get to?"

Swallowing quickly, I turned towards Iggy and gave him the best death glare I could. It would have made even Max back off, but as Iggy couldn't exactly see, he just sniggered again.

An idea hit me suddenly, and a smirk that Iggy wouldn't be able to see came across my face for a second before disappearing again.

"Third," I replied nonchalantly, and Iggy almost blanched.

"Wait, wha-" Iggy began nervously, but I cut him off.

"We would have gone all the way, but, you know, Max and I had to come back here. It's a shame, though," I said after a short pause.

The look on Iggy's face was priceless. Sure, Max and I have only made it to first base, but Iggy didn't know that.

"Maybe we'll pick up where we left off later tonight," I said, smirking freely now while Iggy spluttered. I then passed Iggy to go back out into the living room. When I passed him I muttered, "Kidding."

"What? You mean – augh! Fang!" he said, and I could tell he was seething, but I was already out into the living room with Nudge and Ella.

"Max went upstairs," Ella said, noticing my searching gaze. "Oh, can I have my phone back now? I want to actually use it."

I began to search my pockets to get Ella's phone, but I couldn't find it anywhere. Crap. There was the money, the spare beach house keys, lint – but no phone.

"Ella," I began, trying not to let her show my nervousness, but Nudge stopped me.

"ZOMG, you did not! Ella, I think he lost your phone! Fang, how could you lose it? It was a pink RAZR with a bunch of sparkles I just put on it the other day to beautify it! And now it's lost. Great job Fang, great job. Now Ella will have to get a new o-"

"Fang, please get the house phone and call my phone to see if anyone's found it," Ella said, sounding stressed. Iggy, pretty much coming out of nowhere, gave me the house phone.

"Here," he muttered, still ticked about the trick I played on him. I was wary that the phone would blow up on me, but I was distracted when Max came down the stairs.

"What's going on?" Max said cautiously. She looked like a goddess coming down the stairs and her hair fanned out nicel – oh, God, I am so whipped.

"Fang lost Ella's phone while you were on the date and now he's about to call it to see if anyone found it," Nudge said speedily in one breath. Max just rolled her eyes, mumbling something about material objects.

I had Ella recite the number to me as I punched in the numbers on the phone. After the last number, the phone paused for a minute before I heard it start ringing as I brought it up to my ear.

A few rings later, a voice I subconsciously recognized picked up the phone.

"Hello?" the voice said curiously.

"Yo," I said, and I saw Ella's face flood with relief that her phone was found. "I think you found my friend's phone."

Then, the squeals started.

"Oh my gosh, I knew you'd call!" It was then that I recognized the voice – it was the waiter, Damien. I saw Max's eyes flare open as her super sensitive ears pick up his voice as well.

"Your phone fell out of your pocket while at the restaurant – very nice choice in glitter and phone, BTW. It matches mine, but in pink instead of purple! So, yea, do you want to get your phone sometime, cutie? Maybe we could go out afterwar-" At that point, I hung up.

When I looked over to the others, Max was trying, and failing, not to laugh, while Nudge and Iggy looked curious and amused. Ella, the only one without super hearing, looked confused.

"Well? Can you get it back?"

"Looks like you'll have to get a new phone, Ella," I said grimly as Max laughed harder.

* * *

**How was it? Terrible? Good? Loving it? Review and tell me! Feedback is amazing, guys.**

**If you have sent me a PM and haven't gotten a response yet, you will get one soon. (This includes you, katiegirl101199! Sorry :))**

**Oh, and after you review (wink wink, nudge nudge) I have a poll on my profile pertaining to your favorite chapter of this story, from Chapters 1 to 13.**

**Also, my birthday is this week - before Friday, but after today! Wooh! Any conjectures to what age I'll be turning? Just curious ;D**

**So, make my birthday, and review! Thanks :)**


	15. Something's Wrong With Dr M

**A/N: Sorry for the wait. I really wanted to finish "The Battle of the Labyrinth" and "The Last Olympian" this weekend. Sooo good!**

**Oh, and sorry guys. I said that I would have a list of reviewers this chapter, until I realized that I just made one, two chapters ago. Whoops. There will definitely be one next chapter, though!**

**Has anyone else ever seen "The Rocky Horror Picture Show"? Freakiest. Movie. Ever. I'm glad I watched it ;D**

**Also, I just found out that there are pictures of me on Facebook, doing the limbo at a party... In a dress. It's times like these where I _really _wish I had a Facebook.**

* * *

**Max POV**

After deciding that we would just have to beg Mom to get Ella a new phone, the rest of us went to bed. Iggy, Ella, and Nudge had wanted to know who the guy was, but Fang gave me his special "I love you but I _will_ kill you if you tell them" glare, so I closed my mouth and didn't tell them.

So, we all went to our respective rooms, Fang and I exchanging meaningful glances before leaving each other for the night.

Now, this morning I woke up to a curious pair of sparkling blue eyes staring at me.

I know that the Flock is supposed to be trained to not yell when surprised, but this startled me.

"Agh," I said, shooting to the opposite side of the bed, where Angel wasn't standing.

"Hi Max!" she exclaimed, as cheerful as ever. "How was your date last night? Sorry I wasn't awake when you came home, but I was tired. Oh, did you know that you dream about Fang a lot?"

I fought a blush creeping to my cheeks. "Angel, you know you shouldn't read people's minds," I reprimanded her.

Angel grinned impishly. "I never did. You were just saying his name in your sleep so many times, I just figured that you were. And I was right! That's really sweet, Max. Now, how was the date?" Angel said, sitting on the bed while I positioned myself upright against the headboard.

"It was amazing, Ange," I said as she leaned her head against my shoulder. There was no point lying, since she would read my mind no matter what. "He told me he loves me."

Angel nodded her head against my shoulder. "I told you that he did, Max. But did you listen? No, not really. At least you know now. And you said that you love him too, right?"

"Yea," I said, barely believing it. If I didn't know better, last night was a dream. A weird dream, but a good one nonetheless.

"I could tell," Angel said. "Fang's thoughts have been really happy all morning. A kind of creepy-happy, coming from Fang, but happy."

Sometimes it amazes me how mature Angel is. I've had more serious conversations with her than Iggy, and Iggy's eight – oh, sorry, seven – years older than her.

We were comfortably quiet for a bit, until Angel broke the silence. "Max, what's a base?"

I shifted, hoping Angel wasn't asking about what I thought she was. "Um, the scientific one, or the baseball one?"

Angel shook her head. "Neither. At least, I don't think it's either of them. Iggy was thinking something about Fang saying you and him were at third base. So, I thought he meant baseball, but that doesn't make any sense. Do you know what he meant?"

Oh, God. I don't know who to be angrier at – Iggy, for thinking that around Angel, or at Fang for telling Iggy that we were at freaking _third base_.

I decided to go on the offensive, hoping that she'd just forget the question. "Angel, I just told you that you shouldn't read people's minds."

"Sorry, Max, but Iggy's thoughts can get so loud, that I can't help but listen. So, what did he mean? I know you know, so don't try to hide it."

Crap. I can't just tell her – I mean, she's only seven years-old.

I then decided on the less-embarrassing choice for me. "Go ask Iggy. He'll tell you better than I can."

A mischievous smile came across Angel's face. "Alright, then. Thanks Max!" She scrambled off of my bed, and began skipping to my door. As she was about to leave, though, Angel stopped. "Just so you know, Fang dreams about you too."

Angel then left a ticked, happy, and embarrassed me behind, to go ask Iggy something she shouldn't know until at least my age.

I sighed, and swung my legs out of bed to get ready for a long day.

()()()()()()()

When I came out into the living room after getting dressed, I noticed that my mom wasn't there. As she is usually one of the first people up, I immediately began to worry.

I hurriedly headed upstairs to see where my mom was. When I got to the third floor, I thought I heard the whirring noise again, but I wasn't sure over the blaring of the television in the living room that Gazzy had been watching.

Not wanting to lose the element of surprise, I burst into her room, hoping that I wasn't walking in on something.

Once again, nothing seemed out of place. This time, though, my mom was sitting upright in bed, with a glassy look in her eyes and a sick look about her.

"Mom," I said, walking into the room and towards her bed, "Are you alright?"

She shook her head and put her hand out to stop me. I paused in my footsteps, waiting while my mom scribbled something onto a notebook. When she held it up to me, it said 'Laryngitis. Can't speak. Sick. Don't want you to get sick.'

I felt bad for my mom – her health hadn't completely recovered since her time with Mr. Chu, so I do guess that catching a cold in the summer wasn't entirely an abnormal thing.

"Do you want me to get you something? Have Iggy make soup?" I questioned her, stepping closer. Mom put her hand up again to stop me.

"Mom," I said, "I have enhanced genetics. It takes a lot more than a cold to get me sick."

My mom shook her head vigorously, and croaked out a "No." She sounded worse than I thought – really croaky, and kind of… robotic-sounding.

"If you're sure, Mom. Do you want food at least?" She shook her head no, and I sighed.

"Okay, then." Suddenly, I remembered something: she wasn't there when we told her the code to distinguish us from the Robo-Idiots. So, if something ever happened, we couldn't confirm anything with her.

"Oh, and Mom? You know about those robots that can shape-shift? Well, the Flock and Ella made up a code to distinguish each other from them, just in case." I then told her the code.

For some reason, her eyes flashed before nodding her head. Maybe it was just a flash of recognition, but it seemed different – worse.

"Alright then," I said, then turned around and left. The nearly inaudible whirring began again when I closed the door behind me.

She isn't acting entirely like herself. Something isn't right with my mom.

And I intend to find out what that something is.

()()()()()()

After traipsing back downstairs, I went into the kitchen to eat. There, I found a curious-looking Angel and Gazzy sitting at the island in the middle of the kitchen on their respective stools and eating breakfast, and a flustered Iggy cooking even more breakfast.

"Maaax," Angel whined, "Iggy won't tell me what it means."

Iggy turned his sightless eyes towards me. "You _told_ her to ask me?"

I nodded my head, then remembered he couldn't see it. "Yea."

"Why the hel- ck would you tell her to ask me?"

"Because she heard it in _your_ head, Igs," I said coolly as I slid onto a stool. Iggy turned red.

"Well, she shouldn't have been listening," he spluttered. I sighed. I guess I should end my Iggy-torture now.

"Fine, Angel, it means something that you shouldn't know until you're a lot older. 'Kay?"

Angel looked like she was about to protest, but then thought better of it. She huffed and left the kitchen after shoving a forkful of eggs into her mouth.

Just then, I remembered something I wanted to ask Angel, so I hopped off of my stool to follow her as well.

"And I'll be talking to you later about this," I said lowly to Iggy. He paled a bit, and Gazzy began to cackle at Iggy's worried expression.

"Angel, wait a sec," I said to her just as she put her foot on the first step to head up to her room.

"Something doesn't seem right with my mom. I'm giving you permission to read her mind and tell me what's up with her."

Angel nodded her head, and began to get a faraway look in her eyes for a few moments. I waited patiently as her brows furrowed closer and closer together.

"I can't hear a thing," Angel said, then continued. "The thing is, though, I usually can't hear anything. For as long as we've known your mom, I've never really been able to read her mind." Angel paused. "Sorry I couldn't help more." And with that, she turned and headed up the stairs to her room.

That's weird. Angel's never told me that before.

_Voice, any input?_

Nothing, of course from the Voice. As usual.

I was surprised, though, for a second.

_Be very careful, Maximum. Remember: Everything is a test._

Of course the Voice wouldn't clarify on that, so I was left hanging with just a warning. Typical.

I was about to fight with the Voice for a bit longer to see what else it would say, when Fang came out of his room, awake and ready for the day.

His face lit up when he saw me as he was descending the stairs, and I almost forgot I was mad at him. Almost.

"Hey," he said, when he reached the landing where I was standing, and swept me into a deep kiss.

You know how my brain nearly stops functioning whenever I'm too close to Fang? Well, I'm pretty sure I went brain dead with that kiss.

I had closed my eyes, and was about to thoroughly kiss Fang back, when the whole I'm-still-ticked-at-Fang thing pushed at my brain.

Abruptly, I broke off the kiss with Fang. Fang questioningly looked at me, with a bit of hurt in his eyes. Too bad.

"I heard you told Iggy that we were at third base. Why the hell would you do that?"

Fang shifted uncomfortably. "Where'd you hear that?"

"Angel read it in his mind," I said.

A small smirk flitted across Fang's face before he began talking again. "She probably only heard part of what Iggy was thinking. He was being perverted last night, asking what base we made it to. So, I told him third."

"Wait – what?" I spluttered. "Why not just tell him to buzz off?" Or cause bodily harm – but as a leader, I shouldn't encourage violence. Much.

Fang shrugged. "Told him it was a joke later."

I threw my hands in the air. "You didn't even have to tell him anything in the first place!"

Fang then did his half-smile, and my heart skipped a few beats. "You know, you're pretty when you're angry."

That was it. I glared at Fang, punched his shoulder, and walked upstairs and into my room, slamming my door in the process.

Guys are so _frustrating_.

()()()()()()

Around noon, Ella poked her head in my door.

"Did you see Mom this morning?" she asked worriedly.

"Yea," I said, taking my eyes away from the page I was reading of _Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl_ to look at Ella.

"I did too. She doesn't seem so good."

I sighed. "I know, El. And she doesn't seem like herself. I'm worried."

Ella came in and sat on my bed next to me. "Well, there's not much we _can_ do. I guess we'll just keep an eye on her. C'mon, don't let Mom's illness ruin the Flock's vacation. You guys really need it."

I stretched my wings out, extending them from the slits in my tank top. Ella giggled when they brushed her arm and tickled her.

I raised an eyebrow. "Is little Miss Ella ticklish?" I slightly contracted my one wing to brush against her arm again.

"N- no," she said, trying not to laugh again.

"Mmhmm." This piece of information will definitely be useful later on.

Ella opened her mouth to argue that she wasn't ticklish, when Nudge and Gazzy burst into the room.

"Max, can we go to the beach? It's really nice out today," Gazzy said, his big blue eyes, which are so much like his sister's, sparkling.

I smiled. "Sure, Gaz. Go tell everyone to get ready."

My little trooper saluted. "Will do!" With that, Gazzy scrambled out my door to tell the rest of the Flock.

I looked at Nudge, knowing that she was going to say something, when I noticed that she had a mischievous look in her eyes.

"Oh Ma-ax!" she exclaimed, stretching out the 'a'. Uh-oh. "I still don't know what happened to your old bathing suit, but that doesn't matter because now we can get you a new one! I was thinking green this time, because green is a nice color on you, or blue again. Pink would be amazing, but you would never go for that. Oooh, and what cut bikini do you think you want this time? May-"

"Nudge," I cut her off, "no bikini. Ever again. Got that?"

Nudge got a pouty look on her face, but Ella cut in before she could start again. "Well, you have to admit you need a new bathing suit. So, come on. Let's go to get you a new bathing suit, Mom's treat, while everyone else goes to the beach."

I bit my lip. "Bad things tend to happen when we split up the Flock," I said slowly.

"Did anything happen last night?" Ella said, a grin growing on her face.

"Well, no," I said, seeing Ella's point. "Alright, we can go. Just make sure everyone knows that we'll be going to the boardwalk to shop."

Nudge squealed like the happy pre-teen she is, and bolted out of the room to tell everyone that tidbit of information.

I sighed heavily and flopped backwards on my bed.

"So, how about a bikini?" I could hear the smirk in Ella's voice.

"Oh shut up," I mumbled, throwing a pillow at her.

()()()()()()

"Damn," I muttered in the tiny changing room of the shop I was in. So far, every single one-piece or tankini I had tried on didn't have a low enough backing for my wings to go through, inevitably forcing them uncomfortably against my back. Usually, I would just make two slits for my wings to go through, but that would make the swimsuit fall apart.

"Alright in there, Max?" I heard Nudge's amused voice say from outside the changing stall.

I huffed and changed back into my regular clothes. It was such a pain, shopping. I would have just let Ella or Nudge do it for me, but that would result with me in another bikini.

Coming out of the stall, I saw Ella and Nudge's smug faces.

"Couldn't get that one to fit either, huh?" Ella said, swinging a hanger that held light green bikini in her hand.

"Hm," Nudge said, smirking. "You know, a bikini could just be tied under your wings. It wouldn't impede them at all, and it would look fantabulously great on you, at the same time."

I glared at both of them. "Just hand me the bathing suit."

Ella grinned and passed me the bikini she was holding. I huffily turned around and headed back into the stall, hearing the two girls giggling as the door swung shut.

I hurriedly changed into it, wanting to get back to the rest of the Flock as soon as I could.

Once it was on, I risked a glance into the mirror.

Oh God. It wasn't much better than the first one. It covered just as much skin as the last one – meaning very little – but was green instead of blue. I extended my wings a bit in the cramped stall, and found they came out just fine.

I looked at the bathing suit in defeat. Intending to show Ella and Nudge and let them gloat, I opened the door and walked out...

Right into Trey. Or was it Chad? Who cares. As long as it wasn't a Robo-Idiot, I could handle him.

I groaned. "Why are you always showing up at the worst possible times?" I looked around nervously to see where Ella and Nudge had gone, and saw them checking out a Justin Bieber display. Typical.

"Trey," he called to his friend, grinning. So I'm guessing this was Chad. "She just can't keep away from us." He paused. "We saw your 'boyfriend' take out that lookalike of me the other day. It was pretty sweet, but I could have done better to save you."

He then did the pervy guy thing, where they rake their eyes up and down the girl's body. As his friend was coming over, I punched Chad in the stomach.

Now, this punch probably would have only made Fang flinch, but Chad was winded and nearly doubled over. I smirked, knowing that I only used about a quarter of my strength.

Trey came over and grinned. "Feisty." I was about to punch him too, seeing as he was about to look me over too, when Nudge and Ella came over.

Both of their eyes widened slightly at the sight of the guys.

"Who're they?" Ella said, slightly awed. I was ashamed to call her my sister.

"No one," I said hurriedly, and turned to get changed. I forgot that the two idiots had only seen Fang's wings, so I hear their breaths catch when I was about to go back in.

"Holy sh-" Trey started to say when I cut him off.

"Tell anyone about this, and my boyfriend will be back. Or, better yet, I will be." I turned around to see Trey and Chad's stunned faces.

"Woah," Trey said.

"How wide is the wingspan?" Chad said, nearly in awe.

I shrugged, letting my wings unfurl a bit. "Around fifteen."

Suddenly, Trey got a creepy grin on his face. "You know," he purred, "I know something else with that measurement."

The looks on Ella and Nudge's faces were priceless when they understood what he meant, just as I punched him in the stomach.

Utterly grossed out, I turned and went back into the changing room to change.

"Oh yea. She wants me." The girls giggled, as I hit my head against the wall.

Boys.

* * *

**Love it? Like it? Loathe it? Review and tell!**

**Oh, and thanks for all of the birthday wishes! It made up for the fact that my dad totally forgot my birthday, until my mom reminded him ;)**

**On a random note: My gym class had to make our own aerobic dance to a song of our choice. So, if I hear Tik Tok one more time, I'm going to beat my head against a wall.**

**R&R? (because, as we all know, reviews are love, and love make the world go 'round!... Oh, I just sounded like a woodland creature. T_T')**


	16. Overdue AN, Reviewers List, and Excerpt

**A/N: Well then…**

**Sorry for such a long wait on the next chapter of this, guys. You have all been seriously fantastic with reviewing, favoriting, and alerting, that I can't believe that I have been taking so long to update T_T**

**Let's just say life has been nothing short of hectic, for a few different reasons. Schoolwork, track season, and illnesses are getting in the way of everything.**

**So, I figured that I would take this A/N to inform you that I am not dead. Ish. (I pulled my first ever all-nighter last week, so I could debate that)**

**I really hate A/N's in fanfictions, so I decided to give an excerpt of next chapter. Here:**

**()()()()()()**

I wasn't really expecting an answer, but I was wrong again.

_Your guard has been let down. You may think that you have everything under control, Maximum, and that everything is safe, but it is not. Your want of having a vacation, and of the Flock to have a good time, has caused you to let your guard down. Maximum, you are going to fail._

Well, that just sounds peachy.

_Voice, everything seems fine. Except for… my mom. _Then, a thought hit me. _Voice, is something wrong with Mom?_

_Well,_ the Voice said, and if it could show emotion I'm pretty sure it would have scoffed, _we have a winner. It isn't too terrible, I suppose, considering you have been inhaling some sensory deprivers over the night._

Wait, what?

_Think about it, Maximum. Ever since the date last night, your mother has been "off." Your thoughts have been a bit slower than usual, even though it is barely perceptible. You walked straight into one of those boys, and you are usually much more observant. Consider everything that has happened._

I made a list in my head, and I have to admit, it did seem a bit harder than usual. The whirring noise, Mom's cold, the inability to easily make a list, the disappearance of the shadow-thing watching us – Wait, that was it.

()()()()timelapse()()()()

"_No!_" I said aloud, and punched the changing room wall, causing my knuckles to bleed and a good-sized indent in the wall to appear. All conversation on the other side of the door stopped, as I cursed myself for being so damn _stupid_.

_You are wasting time. Go._

**()()()()()()()**

**Well, there it is. Don't worry, that is just an angsty-ish part of the chapter. The rest will be funnier. And Faxier. But there will be some seriousness, as shown by the conversation between the Voice and Max. Oh, and some stuff may be added to that.**

**While I'm at it, here is the reviewers list. Thanks oodles and oodles for sticking this out with me, guys!**

**The numbers may be a little messed up – sorry. Tell me if I missed you, and I will make the correction next chapter :)**

**bleachgirl4 (x3): Oh, you'll see what happens, don't worry ;D Thanks for reviewing!  
katiegirl101199 (x2): It's no problem! And don't worry, you'll find out about Dr. M soon enough…  
turtlelover0511 (x2): Wow, thanks so much! I'm happy you like my story, and it makes me feel even guiltier for not updating T_T Anywho, thanks, and Max's actions will be explained soon!  
SarcasticBookLover23 (x2): W00T W00T, go PJatO! Haha, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show is definitely an experience…!  
ThunderClouds7: Thank you!  
jfeisgs: Thanks for your opinion! And to answer your question, I did not have a plot in mind until about chapter 3. Ish. But, now it is fully formed, and waiting to come out on laptop-paper. Thanks for reviewing!  
ConspiratingYourDemise: Oooh, I'd pay to see that :D If it happens, please, do tell!  
animeteen221 (x2): I actually got the name Damien from the movie Mean Girls. But, since your review, I've gone out and bought the first book of the House of Night Series. Thanks ;D  
mongosquishy (x2): Haha, and thanks! My friends are getting so irked at me for rubbing in meeting Logan I-love-his-eyes Lerman Xd  
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Krabby Patties (x4): Ahahaha, that was a great review :D That "big ol' paragraph about man parts" made my day! Thanks for reviewing! (and no worries about the PM :D)  
Future Miss Fred Weasley: It's no problem! I'm just glad you reviewed then :) Oh, and thanks for the warning on the PJatO movie. Since I wasn't looking for any expectations, it was better than it really was. Thanks!  
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birdgirl24 (x2): *beams* Thanks so much! I'm glad you think it's awesome! More will come soon, too.  
Shelbs13: Thank you! I'm glad I was born too :D Hehe, and I'm glad you like the plot, and the date. Thanks for reviewing!  
The Layman (x3): Haha, innocent Angel my broomstick. (…I've been reading too much Harry Potter) And, sorry about the wait, but the answers to your questions will come soon!  
nm-maximumride4eva (x3): -ahem- Goooo, Most Faithful Reviewer! *throws confetti* Haha, thanks once again, for sticking this through with me :D And the answers to your questions shall come in good time.  
Jojii-chan (x3): Thanks! And I ish trying!  
justplainawesome (x4): Sorry, I'm guessing you are the same as the anonymous reviewer! I swear, I will update soon! I'm sorry. (And, yea, I didn't like "Fang" much either)  
AndThenItBegan (x3): Yea, I wish the Olympics were still on T_T I am happy that you thought it was funny!  
21reeree21: More more more is coming!  
kate .emri .nudge (x3): Haha, there's no love for Trey and Chad :D Oh, and good job with your guess!  
CrazyNerdyFangirl (x3): Teehee, Tik Tok on the clock XP And, thanks! I'm trying to update soon!  
LiliaCupcake376: Thanks! I'm happy you love all those things! I am not sure about a beta, from your reassurance, but I will go to you if I think more into it. Thanks again! And, hehe, I'm sure I have my moments. Even in real life. Oh, the stories…  
UNDERLANDERfromtheOVERLAND: Haha, thanks. And I'm not sure if waiters/waitresses are allowed to flirt with customers. I must look into this now…  
IPityYou (x3): Hm, not a bad idea! Haha, well, thanks for the review, and excellent idea ;D  
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Break In Silence (x2):  
DiamondSunshine (x2): Thanks! And I will :)  
Iggy4ever (x2): I'm glad you think everyone is in character! I try hard with it, so I'm happy you think so! And I'm updating soon :)  
Hailey319: Thank you! I'm happy you like it :)  
MaxandFang101 (x2): Yea, it happens in my gym class too! Except the other day we played some excellent Queen :D  
Nighthawk21 (x2): Eeep, sorry, I'm trying to update!  
UcAnTpUlLtHiSoFf: Haha, yea, poor Fangles :) And, thanks!  
orange .polish (x2): Haha, yes, I am glad, and I have you and several others to thank for it. So, thank you! For everything =D  
random reader: Thanks :D  
fang#1girl: I'm continuing, don't worry! It's just taking me a while…  
devilshalo98: Thanks! I love making people laugh, so I'm glad you are :D  
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Music's Note: Hehe, yea… I'm glad you like this, though, from the start!  
Anonymous: Sooo sorry for the long wait. But I will soon!  
Bob Appelbottom: Yea, well, you'll see that there's a reason to their behavior…! Thanks for the review!  
hihigrl (x2): Ooh, happened to you too? Yea, it's never a fun experience T_T And –le gasp- You loathe it?! Haha, nice, and thanks!  
mexicano: Muchas gracias mi amigo(a)! Me gusta su insert-Spanish-word-for-review!  
) . (: (The name is messed up - sorry) Thanks! I'm glad you like it :)  
Hail the Wolves: Aw, now I feel doubly bad :( Don't worry, a new chapter should be up soon! I swear.  
Daug: I know, same. But there's a good reason for them, you'll see.  
dogsrplayful: Yeppers! I'm on it. *salutes*  
SharpestSatire: Haha, yea, Fangles is great :)  
CircleDaybreak (x2): The phone part was one of my favorites, too :)  
yes (x2): Sorry, but I've decided on neither – too much indecision. Thanks for reviewing!  
The Village Idiot's Pet: Thanks so much for checking it out! It made me feel better :D  
****sweet:**** Ah, yea. Thanks for reviewing!  
kyky123: Thanks!  
Grey Eyed (x12): Woah! Thanks for reviewing 12 times! It made my other day, coming home and opening my e-mail and finding all of them. Thanks!  
mimi: Hehe, luffs you too :) I'll update soon, I swear!**

**Also, I believe that Beach FAXcation is coming to an end. Probably six more chapters or so, give or take a few. If you have any requests or suggestions, review or PM me with them, and I'll see what I can do. (Krabby Patties, your fangirl suggestion is coming soon!)**

**I should update as soon as Spring Break starts, so Thursdayish, but maybe Friday, will most likely be my next update. Until then, splendiferous people!**

**-Flight at Midnight**

**P.S. A/N's suck. Oh, and if I need to reply to any PMs, I apologize, and will get to them soon.**


	17. Trouble in Paradise

**A/N: Eh, so it's a few days late. Sorry. There will be an update by Friday, though. (Hopefully - my laptop has been screwing up lately)**

**I read "Catching Fire," the second book of the Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins, which is a reason why this is late. I realized that the whole time I was reading it, I was pronouncing Finnick's name as "Fnick." O_o Oh, and I read the first House of Night novel, and was struck by how many gay characters in fiction have the name of Damien.**

**Also (sorry for the rambling), I was watching the TV show Ugly Betty, and a gay guy said he wanted his gay boyfriend's name to be Trey instead of Troy. Quelle coinkydink?**

**Now, to the chapter! **

* * *

**Max POV**

It was at that moment that the Voice just had to butt in.

_Maximum_, it intoned, _you are going to soon fail this test._

_What do you mean?_ I shot back. _Nothing seems to be wrong._

I wasn't really expecting an answer, but I was wrong again.

_Your guard has been let down. You may think that you have everything under control, Maximum, and that everything is safe, but it is not. Your want of having a vacation, and of the Flock to have a good time, has caused you to let your guard down. Maximum, you are going to fail._

Well, that just sounds peachy. _Voice, everything seems fine. Except for… my mom. _Then it hit me. _Voice, is something wrong with Mom?_

_Well,_ the Voice said, and if it could show emotion I'm pretty sure it would have scoffed, _we have a winner. It isn't too terrible, I suppose, considering you and the rest of the Flock and Ella have been inhaling some sensory deprivers over the night._

Wait, what?

_Think about it, Maximum. Ever since the date last night, your mother has been "off." Your thoughts have been a bit slower than usual, even though it is barely perceptible. You walked straight into one of those boys, and you are usually much more observant. Consider everything that has happened._

I made a list in my head, and I have to admit, it did seem a bit harder than usual. The whirring noise, Mom's cold, the inability to easily make a list, the disappearance of the shadow-thing watching us – Wait, that was it.

_Voice, are you telling me that my mom has been taken again? And has been replaced by a shape-shifting M-Geek?_ I thought, a sick feeling settling in the pit of my stomach. I held my breath, waiting for the Voice to respond.

_Yes._

"_No!_" I said aloud, and punched the changing room wall, causing my knuckles to bleed and a good-sized indent in the wall to appear. All conversation on the other side of the door stopped, as I cursed myself for being so damn _stupid_.

_You are wasting time. Go, before you fail – both in saving your mom, and the world._

That was the catalyst that got me moving. I threw my clothes on over my bathing suit and bolted out of the stall.

"Hey, babe, everything okay?" Chad asked me as I hurried past him and Trey, grabbing Nudge's and Ella's hands as I went.

"Don't call me that," I managed to snarl over my shoulder, throwing some money on the counter after releasing the girls' hands. _That's me – always the thoughtful one_.

"What happened? ZOMG, did the Voice do tell you something? It must be bad, Max, since you were talking to yourself again," Nudge babbled worriedly as we full-out ran out from the store and off of the boardwalk, in case security guards didn't take kindly to my pay-on-the-go method.

"I'll tell you when we get to the air." It then hit me that Ella couldn't fly back to the house. Nudge and I couldn't just leave her, though, or even just leave her with Nudge. Who knows what could be watching us right now. But we had to fly back – it was much faster than walking.

Doing a quick 360 at the people on the street, I asked Ella, "Do you trust me?"

"Yea, of course, Max. But why -" Ella's question was cut off by me scooping her up in my arms (she was _a lot_ heavier than she looked) and took a long running start before whipping my wings out and taking to the air.

Nudge took the hint followed me, ignoring as I did the gasps and cries of surprise from the small crowd people around us.

"Ohmigod!" Ella screeched, holding onto my neck for dear life. Meanwhile, I was pumping my wings, trying to catch an air current and keep us both aloft. "This is freaking amazing!"

I grinned in spite of myself, and started heading back to the beach house to confront my "Mom."

"Now, what in the world is going on, Max?" Nudge asked, trying to keep it short for once. Ella looked up at me with eyes full of fear, joy, and curiosity.

"Well, you see," I began, launching myself into a very condensed and confusing explanation of everything I just learned in the past ten minutes.

()()()()()()

**Fang POV (approximately an hour prior)**

"See you when we get back," Max called over her shoulder as Nudge and Ella pulled her out of the house by her hands to go by her another bathing suit. I was secretly hoping it would be a bikini, but there's pretty much no chance of that ever happening again.

"To the beach!" Iggy exclaimed as he raced the Gasman down to our now-usual beach spot. Angel and I, the mature ones, walked down instead.

While I set up our towels, Angel and Gazzy went down to the water while Iggy scoped out the surroundings. He stood still, listening intently for anything unusual and trying to get his bearings. He looked confused as he listened, and furrowed his eyebrows. It seemed like he was having trouble with his senses.

Unsatisfied with his scoping, Iggy came over and sat down, less accurately than usual, on the towel next to the one I positioned myself on after doing a few 360s of my own. Everything seemed fine, but my head wouldn't clear very well. I just attributed it to lack of sleep, though.

"Please, Fang?" Iggy begged. This, I have found, is the only time he ever begs for anything.

"No," I said firmly, knowing what he was talking about.

He sighed heavily. "I really didn't want it to have to come to this, but…"

Iggy pulled out Dr. M's cell phone, which he "borrowed," flipped it open, and rubbed his finger along the face of it until he found the 3. He positioned his finger on it, ready to strike.

I gave him a questioning look, and even though he couldn't see it, Iggy knew me well enough to figure out what I was doing.

"After you called Ella's phone and that guy picked up, I figured that something was up. So, I'll call her phone and tell your friend where we are so he can come, and I'll ask him personally what happened." Iggy grinned maniacally, knowing that he had me.

Crap.

"Really?" I asked, half exasperated, half slightly amused. He nodded triumphantly. "Fine." Although I'm fast, I know any attempt to grab the phone will only result in Iggy calling the speed dial, seeing as he is just as quick as me, and possibly more so.

I looked around, trying to find a girl that Iggy would like to have described to him. Yea, I know that it is sexist and demeaning to girls, and (insert a fifteen minute lecture/rant from Max here), but what else? Besides, Igs can't "see," in a sense, so it's alright. Kind of.

And there is no way that Damien, our gay waiter, is going to come and hit on me.

"Well," I said, spotting a girl, "there's a girl talking with her friends on a beach towel. Long brown hair, with blonde highlights in the sun. Really athletic looking, and tan. Oh, and she -" I was cut off by Iggy snorting. "What?"

"Dude, from what I understand, you just described a total Max lookalike. You, my emo friend, are one whipped boyfriend." Ignoring the emo comment, I looked back at the girl and realized that she did look _a lot_ like Max. Oh.

"Just describe one of her friends," Iggy said, waving his hand.

I internally sighed. "Her one friend has big dark hair. Purple, skimpy bikini. Really tan, but it looks fake. Oh, uh, and the guy next to her is fist-pumping, so she joined in."

Iggy gave a short bark of laughter. "I thought this was North Carolina, not New Jersey." Even with the small knowledge of pop culture I have, I still knew what he was talking about and it nearly made me grin.

"C'mon, Fangles, more descriptions," he demanded after a minute, fingering the 3 button. I was hoping he forgot, but, really, this is Iggy, the hormonal bird-boy. Brushing off the Fangles nickname, I resumed.

"A girl is walking down the beach with a guy. She has blonde hair, striped bikini, and long legs." Suddenly, the girl stopped walking after the guy said something to her, looking infuriated. She turned to him, struck out her leg, and kicked him hard in a place that made even me wince.

"What?" Iggy asked, having felt me wince.

"The girl just kicked the guy in the, uh," I fished around for an appropriate word. "Jewels." Iggy snorted again at my eloquent choice of wording.

"You know," he said thoughtfully after a moment, "if a guys' is called jewels, would a girls' be called a jewelry box?"

I stared at Iggy for a second before chuckling at his perverted question.

"Is this what you think about?" Iggy nodded emphatically.

"Why not? I mean, what else is there to think about, really?" Iggy paused for a second before saying, "You know why Edward Cullen's so pale?" I shook my head, not really wanting to know why either. This was another piece of pop culture I knew about (thanks to Ella and Nudge), but I wondered how Iggy knew why he was pale.

"It's because there's no light in the closet," Iggy said smugly. I thought about it for a second, then chuckled again, now understanding why he asked.

"Wow, two semi-laughs from Fang. The world will end. Ow." That last part of the sentence was contributed by me punching Iggy in the arm. He was about to punch back, but was stopped by the squeaking of sand that told him people were approaching.

"Fang, Iggy, can we play this ping pong game?" Angel asked, picking up and holding out four paddles and a ping pong ball in her still-dripping hands. The Gasman stood behind her, also dripping wet from the ocean.

They were both garnering stares, seeing as their backs were now turned to the rest of the beach and their wings were very visible, puffing out as they were drying.

"Sure," I said, "but put shirts on." They nodded and obeyed me quickly, putting their shirts on as Iggy and I, already wearing shirts, stood up to play.

We split into two teams of two after drawing a line in the sand, and alternated partners after every few rounds.

Our playing gathered a pretty large crowd, all of who were watching very intently. Although I didn't realize it at the time, a lot of the people watching were girls. Who were swooning whenever Iggy or I made a particularly difficult save.

I realized this after Iggy, on the opposite team this time, hit the ping pong ball too short, and I dove to hit it in time – which I did.

"Nice, Fang," Iggy said, grinning, when he heard my body hit the sand. For a blind guy, he's pretty good at a game that involves hand-eye coordination.

A ripple went through the girls of the crowd. "Fang," I heard some people murmur.

Uh-oh. Could the girls be working for Mr. Chu? Be shape-shifting M-Geeks?

Then, the first girl screamed. "OHEMGEE!" she squealed, which definitely hurt Ig's ears. "It's Fang, from the blog, and the some of the Flock!"

Another, more rational girl was next to speak. "Are you sure? There's only four of them."

As she spoke, Angel, Iggy, Gazzy and I all took nearly imperceptible steps away from the fangirls.

"That's funny," Gazzy said conversationally. "Like we have wings. Ha ha."

"There are wing outlines on the backs of their shirts – it has to be them!" another girl yelled. And that's what did us in.

"Get them!" one of the more obsessive blog fangirls screamed, and the Flock booked it for the beach house. Iggy seemed reluctant to go, though, hoping that there was an Iggy fangirl within their midst.

"We can't go back to the beach house," Angel said sensibly. "They'll know where we live."

"What do we do then?" I asked, not really running hard since the whole being-genetically-engineered thing allowed us to be much faster than the girls.

"Run on the street – they'll lose us soon enough," Iggy said, trying to ignore the calls of "Iggy's mine!" coming from behind us. Many more "Fang's mine" and "No, he's _mine_," were coming from behind us, but I tried not to pay too much attention to them, since Max gets just a little possessive.

We redirected ourselves to the steps leading to the streets, and poured on the speed. We were losing them already, but when I lost a flip-flop, we really lost the fangirls. The sounds of them scuffling over my five dollar, grungy shoe were eventually lost somewhere behind us.

"Well," Iggy said as we stopped, "that was an adventure."

"They were like rabid zoo animals," the Gasman said, his eyes wide. "But, then again," he added, snickering, "you can't spell fangirl without Fang."

Iggy and the Gasman high-fived (which Iggy scarily never misses), while I grew more worried over how much Gazzy was growing to be like Iggy.

"Let's head back, then," Angel said brusquely. It's sad that she can be more on-track than any one of us guys, whose average age is twice hers.

We headed back to the house, making sure to avoid any routes that the fangirls could be on. I figured that we would just get the beach towels and everything later on.

When we got to the house, Angel entered first, and stopped dead. The rest of us filed in after her, filling the small entryway to the living room.

"Angel," I said, closing the door behind me, "what's wrong?"

She shook her head. "Something hasn't been feeling right before, and now it really doesn't feel right. Like someone's watching us…"

If Angel says something wrong, then something is definitely wrong. Everyone immediately got into defensive mode, just as Dr. Martinez walked in through the kitchen.

"Oh, hey Dr. M," Gazzy said. I nodded at her, my customary greeting, while everyone else said hi to her warily. Angel was right; something didn't feel natural.

"Wait," I said, "Weren't you sick?"

At that moment, Max burst through the door, just barely leaving it on its hinges.

"Guys," she breathed out, a wild look in her eyes. Nudge and Ella walked through the doorway behind her, looking just as alarmed. "It's not -" Max broke off her sentence as her eyes landed on her mom, standing in the middle of the now crowded living room.

"You," she said, her eyes narrowing scarily. Then, Max launched through the members of the Flock in between her and her mom, aimed to kill.

()()()()()()()

**Max POV**

I threw myself at my "mom," disregarding the Flock members standing in my way.

I really hoped that the sensory deprivation gas the Voice had been telling me about earlier wasn't still going, or else this would be a much harder fight.

Needless to say, Nudge and Ella had been confused and horrified when I explained everything while in the air. Ella even started to cry, which made carrying her a lot harder than I needed it to be.

I kicked at the mom-imposter's ankles, but she jumped back in time.

"Max," she said, sickeningly sweet, "why are you attacking your mother?"

I paused for a moment. Weren't the M-Geeks supposed to be only able to talk robotically?

_They used to be, Maximum, _the Voice informed me quickly. _But that was what the whirring noise you heard was – the M-Geek installing a new voice box, to deceive you further._

My blood boiled even more, and I began to see red. Just how long were they planning on tricking us?

With renewed fervor, I stood up out of my crouching position and began to kick and lash out at the M-Geek.

"You are no mother of mine," I growled. Grasping the fact that the plan was found out, the M-Geek threw out any sense of motherliness and began to fight back.

As I dropped down and rolled under the M-Geek's extended leg and delivering a blow to its inner thigh, I overheard Nudge and Ella explaining everything to the dumbfounded remainder of the Flock.

I deflected another excellent right hook from the M-Geek with a couch pillow, waiting for the information to soak in a bit. When my "mom"'s fist narrowly missed my jaw, however, I decided it was time to shake them out of their stupor.

"Um, guys? As much as I like fighting this M-Geek by myself, some help would be nice." And it was true – this M-Geek was a much better fighter than the others, actually able to learn my moves and how to counteract them.

Fang was the first to join by my side, followed quickly by the rest of the Flock. Poor Ella had no idea what else to do but watch and give words of support.

"Mom," became overwhelmed very quickly after that. Just as Iggy was about to deliver a well-placed chop to the head to kill the M-Geek, it stepped back and quickly morphed into Fang.

It was one of the freakiest things I've seen in a while. (Remember, I grew up in a secret science facility. I've seen _much_ worse.) My "mom"'s whole outer skeleton bulged out, making the whole body look bloated and distorted. Then, the body began to elongate, the torso broadened, and the hair shortened as other grotesque transformations occurred.

Suddenly, I was looking at an exact Fang replica. Right before he lunged towards me.

* * *

**A/N: So, some questions were answered, but more questions surfaced. Hmm... Well, the answers to those questions will be answered in the next chapter :D**

**On a side note, New Jerseyeans are not like that. At all. I have quite a lot of family from New Jersey, my mom having grown up there (she's even been to the beach they film Jersey Shore at), and from what I've seen, very few of them are, ahem, Snookie-ish.**

**Oh, and I'll reply to any PMs you may have sent me soon enough! Sorry for that too :)**

**Now, off to watch more of the amazing British show, Doctor Who!**

**R&R? (Since I'm on break, the next chapter might come sooner with encouragement ;)**


	18. Revelations and Plans

**A/N: I suck at life. So sorry for keep you all waiting. I'll keep this brief, so you, my dear, faithful reader, can get reading. (See A/N at end for more).**

* * *

(For those of you who do not remember - and trust me, I don't blame you)  
Last time: 

_Voice, are you telling me that my mom has been taken again? And has been replaced by a shape-shifting M-Geek?_ I thought, a sick feeling settling in the pit of my stomach. I held my breath, waiting for the Voice to respond.

_Yes._

()()()()()()

...it (the shape-shifting M-Geek) stepped back and quickly morphed into Fang.

...Suddenly, I was looking at an exact Fang replica. Right before he lunged towards me.

* * *

**Max POV**

"Fang" rocketed towards me, aimed to kill, with no chance of me dodging an attack. So, I braced myself, and just as it was about to make possible lethal impact on my body, it was slammed off its course by none other than Fang.

The two rolled around on the floor, the momentum from Fang's solid hit carrying them along. They stopped finally, next to the couch, no one having any clue as to which Fang was which.

Well, crap.

Both Fangs shot up at the same time, backed up a bit, and circled each other in the cramped living room. The one Fang went behind the couch, and the other went behind the coffee table, brushing the TV on the wall as he circled. I wonder if this is what it was like watching Max II and I fight each other – confusing.

Suddenly, one Fang launched himself towards the other, fist extended. The other Fang dodged, but not before sticking his leg out and tripping the other Fang.

More blows were exchanged as a very confused Flock and Ella watched. Eventually, I couldn't take it anymore.

"Stop it!" I bellowed, and the two stopped, one Fang holding the other in a headlock. "Good. We all know the real Fang would have listened to me." I smirked, and I heard Iggy cough out something that sounded strangely like "whipped." "Now, how do we figure out who's who?"

"Wait, I know," Gazzy said, stepping forward triumphantly. "What's the code word?"

"Valium," both Fangs unnervingly said at the same time. Everyone looked confused, while it hit me that I told the M-Geek the code word when I thought it was my mom.

"Guys, here's the thing with shape-shifting…"

After I voiced this unfortunate realization to the Flock, I realized I didn't even know how the Flock knew about the Valium.

_Ella told us, Max,_ Angel informed me. _She thought it was adorable._

I should've known it was Ella. She runs her mouth almost as much as Nudge. I'd have to kick Ella's butt for that later, but Angel had given me an idea.

"Angel, which Fang's thoughts can you not hear?" As I said this, I looked over to see if this sparked a reaction in either Fang. Both remained stoic, though.

This M-Geek seems much smarter than the others. It seemed to be learning from everything we did – our mannerisms, personalities, everything. Could it be a new type of dangerous Artificial Intelligence?

Angel stared intently at the two Fangs for a few moments before turning to me.

"It's him," Angel stated matter-of-factly, pointing at the Fang who previously had the other Fang in a headlock.

The whole Flock turned towards him in eerie unison, while our Fang looked slightly relieved.

"Mr. Chu still hasn't learned," I said, which seemed to be the cue to attack. The whole Flock lunged towards "Fang," giving the M-Geek no time to change shapes.

Angel and Gazzy, being the shortest, aimed for the legs, while Nudge aimed for the midsection. Iggy and I pounded into the M-Geek's torso, while Fang reluctantly stood aside and caught his breath from the previous fight.

"Fang" struggled under the Flock, who had now pinned him to the floor. Suddenly, the M-Geek paused in its movement and turned into an Iggy lookalike, which was disgusting to watch happen right underneath you. However, the Flock didn't let up, and the new "Iggy" gave up as well.

"What does Mr. Chu want with my mom now?" I demanded from the M-Geek, straddling its chest. M-Geek Iggy stared at me blankly, with a replica of Iggy's eyes that could actually see, ironically enough. "Well?"

The rest of the Flock backed off from the M-Geek, keeping a good distance to help in case of more resistance while I interrogated it. In the following silence, I heard Nudge let out a few short giggles.

"Max," Nudge snickered, "I think someone's jealous of the position you're in." I looked over at Fang. Ella, with the first-aid kit, was bandaging up a few of Fang's scrapes and scratches from the fight. Fang, however, was looking at the position I was in on top of the Iggy lookalike with little emotion in his eyes, except a hint of reluctant jealousy.

It was then I realized that I was straddling someone who looked exactly like Iggy. "Um, yea. Whatever," I said, trying to shrug it off and fight off a blush. I needed to keep my mind on this. I couldn't let my mom get hurt again.

"Iggy or Gazzy, hand me a screwdriver that I know one of you has on you," I said, holding my hand out backwards for the screwdriver to be put into it. I never took my eyes off of the M-Geek, and when the screwdriver was placed into my hand, I pointed it into the M-Geek's face.

"What did Mr. Chu send you here to do?" I questioned the Iggy M-Geek, spinning the blue screwdriver in my fingers as menacingly as I could. Still, nothing.

"Wait, Max," Nudge said, coming over. "Maybe I can help. That memory power of mine might do something."

"Sure Nudge. Let's give it a try," I said, nodding, keeping my eyes trained on the M-Geek. Nudge traipsed over, and knelt next to it. She closed her eyes, concentrating, and touched its metal skin.

Nudge squeezed and scrunched her eyes, all the while making me more and more nervous. Suddenly, a horrified look overcame her face. She jumped back, looking around wildly and prattling nonsensically.

"What is it Nudge?" I said over her incoherent babble. The one time her mouth failed her just had to be now. "Spit it out."

Ignoring Iggy's mumble of "That's what she said," Nudge took a huge breath, and I knew we were in for another horrific time.

()()()()()()()

"Having any luck with the mainframe?" I hissed, over two hours later, as I passed the closed bathroom door, where Nudge and Ella were supposedly giving each other makeovers.

"Sort of. It's pretty complicated, though. No, Ella, don't touch that wire. It's that one…"

Shaking my head, I walked down the stairs and into the living room, where the rest of the Flock was "watching" some movie that Angel had decided to put on. In reality, we were all putting on a show for the now-noticeable camera set up in the upper right corner of the room.

I plopped myself down onto the small couch, next to Fang, absentmindedly staring at the screen. Gazzy was animatedly describing what was going on in the movie to Iggy, as they both fiddled with wires taken from the now-destroyed M-Geek.

"Are they having any luck figuring out the wiring to the system?" Fang asked, speaking out of the corner of his mouth. I shrugged my shoulders slightly, which Fang understood as a "sort-of."

Everyone was also keeping a tense eye on me. Hey, I would do that to someone too if I just found out that Mr. Chu was out to kill them, so they wouldn't mess up their environment-destroying business. From what Nudge understood from the white-coat who programmed the M-Geek, Mr. Chu's reasoning was that a group couldn't function without its leader. So, without the Flock in the way, he'd be in the clear.

You see, Mr. Chu had kidnapped my mom (again) in order to get her to back off with all of the CSM stuff. He was losing money, fast, from the CSM's campaigns against his company. So, he sent his special new kind of M-Geek to kidnap, then impersonate, my mother, while Mr. Chu got mom to call the CSM off of his company. He figured she would snap this time, because no one would know that she was gone as someone was fooling everyone into believing that it was truly her.

However, there was the Flock to factor in, too.

"Max! Come here. I think I burnt myself with the straightener, and it kind of hurts! Yowch."

I faked a sigh. "Coming, Nudge." I got up again and traipsed up to the bathroom, trying not to look excited or anxious.

I entered the bathroom and closed the door behind me as quickly as I could so the hall camera couldn't see in. Inside, there was a mass of tangles wires, with a huge hole in the wall. That will be hard to explain to the realtors…

"What'd you find? Where are the cameras positioned, and why did we all get those awful shocks from trying all of the doors and windows?"

Nudge sighed. "Well, the cameras the M-Geek set up when we were out this morning are set up in every room, except this bathroom and the other one. Eh, at least they respected our privacy - and the fact that there aren't any windows in either bathroom… Anyway, that M-Geek was busy while we were out. I'm still not entirely sure how it ran the wires throughout the house, but it did a pretty good job of it. It also disconnected the phone lines, and calls are now being transferred somewhere else.

"Now, I was able to find two wires in the wall that could hook up to the laptop, and with a little hacking, I found out that we are constantly being monitored by someone," Nudge finished in a rush, while Ella nodded vigorously.

I raised an eyebrow. "And the electric shocks…?"

"Oh, when we try windows and doors and such, the person watching us sends an electric shock through the electrical wires running through the walls, ones that are bad enough to get us to back off. The shocks'll probably get worse the more we try, though," Ella said. She looked worried, but her eyes shone. I could tell she was proud to help in any way that she could.

"Can you figure out how to hack the system even further and gain control?"

Nudge furrowed her eyebrows. "I've tried already. The code is really hard to crack, though. It could take days…"

I sighed. "We don't have that much time. Can't we do something else?"

Well, it had turned out that in case we discovered that the M-Geek wasn't really my mother, it set up this entire camera and shock system while we were out. If we hadn't, well, the M-Geek was going to kill me, but make it look like I had committed suicide or some other sort of accident. They figured that a group can't function without its leader, so if my mom ever did get released, they wouldn't have to worry about the Flock's retaliation as much. Mr. Chu might have me killed soon, anyway, just to make sure we're off of his back forever.

But that's only if the Flock and I can't help it.

Nudge had become uncharacteristically quiet, while Ella chewed on her lip.

"Is there any way we can trick the cameras?" I asked. I remembered watching a movie back at the E-house with Jeb, where a spy did that.

"That's it!" Nudge said excitedly. "I mean, it will take until later tonight to complete. And a whole lot of help from Iggy and Gazzy."

"Alright. I'll get them in here as inconspicuously as I can. But first, what're you planning to do?"

"We have to attach a device-thing made from these wires I pulled out from the wall to a plug in the camera in the living room, since that is, from what I can tell, the main camera. That'll affect all the other cameras in all the other rooms, since that's where the main wire is from.

"That's where Iggy and Gaz come in. I'll need them to create a kind of timer, like the ones they put on their bombs, for the device, to go off while we're 'sleeping' later tonight. It'll keep a still frame of us sleeping, and an empty house in general, in enough time for us to sneak out." Nudge took a final deep breath, excited that she thought of this.

"Wow, Nudge." I ruffled her hair, and she squeaked a bit, not wanting it to be messed up. "Fantastic idea. Ella, come out with me. I have a feeling you won't want to be in this confined space when the Gasman shows up."

"Sounds good to me," she said, standing up from her kneeling position on the tiled floor. We walked out of the bathroom, trying to appear worried and anxious about our mother, and not in the least bit excited.

"Iggy, Gaz. Nudge needs your help in the bathroom. She, er, got all tangled up in her straightener cord, and since you two are good with wires, she figure you can help," I said as Ella and I strode down the steps into the living room.

They both nodded and stood up. I caught a glint of mischief in Gazzy's eyes, but only for a second. His hair was still standing up on end a bit from when we were testing all of the doors and windows. Even now, I could almost feel the harsh glare of the person monitoring us through the camera honing in on me. It was an eerie feeling, and it reminded me too much of the School.

As I sat next to Fang again, Angel turned around, looked at us, and giggled.

"You know, Max, that couch you're sitting on with Fang can also be called a loveseat," she said, smiling devilishly. I could feel heat creeping to my face, and was glad that Iggy or Gazzy weren't here to make it worse.

"Very funny, Ange. Just go back to watching…" I trailed off, not really knowing what it was that we were watching.

"'High School Musical,'" Ella informed me, her eyes glued to one of the guys on screen as she flopped down on the floor.

I sighed. This movie, again? I think it's probably the fourth time Angel's wanted to watch it. Suddenly, a slight weight was being placed on my shoulder. I tensed, until I realized that it was Fang's arm being draped around my shoulder.

It was then it hit me: if Mr. Chu is really intent on getting me out of the way, we might not have many moments like these anymore. Just being _us_. Max and Fang.

Wanting to make the best of what we may only have left, I leaned sideways and cuddled up on Fang's chest, placing my head underneath of his chin. I know – the fearless Maximum Ride, cuddling? Blame hormones and emotions, the enemies of teenagers everywhere.

I suppose this sort of startled Fang, as his body tensed up, but eventually it relaxed. I breathed in Fang's intoxicating scent (thanks a lot, pheromones), and heard his steady, faster-than-a-normal-human's heartbeat. It was pleasant, after all of the turmoil and disasters that happened this morning.

I don't know how long I was like this, but I was suddenly brought back to reality by an odd vibration on the top of my head. Before moving to check it out, I listened and realized what it was with a jolt of glee.

"Fang? Are you humming to the music in the movie?" I asked Fang incredulously, glancing up at his face through my eyelashes.

"No," Fang said, emotionlessly, but his body had stiffened, cluing me into the fact that I had caught him in the act.

Ella started to giggle. "Fang, I didn't know you had a thing for Zefron."

"I do not," he protested, and I began to chuckle. I was about to argue that, when Angel's voice was projected into my head.

_Guys, the others think they've gotten the device ready. They need a distraction, though, in order to hook it up to the camera. Any ideas?_

There was a pause, then Angel continued. _Max, Fang, Ella says you two should start to "make-out."_ I could hear the mirth contained in Angel's projected voice.

_What? No!_ I thought back to Angel.

_**Max, it's a actually not a bad idea**_, the Voice said. _**The scientist watching may become fascinated with your avian-human mating rituals.**_

I physically made a face. _Gross, Voice._

_**Do you want your mother back?**_

I inwardly sighed. Here goes the rest of Angel's innocence. _Tell the others to get ready_, I thought, knowing Angel would hear.

Resigning to the fact that if we were to get out of here, this was the quickest solution (oddly enough), I sat up. Before Fang even had the time to even look at me questioningly, I threw my arms around his neck and glued my lips to his.

Fang, thankfully, went along with it (but, really, when wouldn't he have?), and wrapped his arms around my waist. We slid backwards until we were lying down, cramped on the small couch, which reminded me in a way of the kiss in the desert. And, as mushy as this sounds, I will never _ever_ take for granted the feeling of Fang's chapped, yet gentle, lips on mine, or the way they seemed to form perfectly together.

While we twisted our heads this way and that, trying to eliminate any space between us, I could almost feel the pervasive and burning stare from the camera on the two of us.

Just as we were both beginning to lose oxygen, Angel interrupted. _Iggy got it in. I don't think anyone noticed. You guys can stop now… Breathe!_

Fang and I unhappily broke apart, both of us breathing fairly raggedly. I gave him a look saying _I'll explain later_, before returning to our original positions, a bit more awkwardly than before.

Soon after, Iggy and Gazzy came back. I saw Iggy's ears practically perk up when he heard the first few lines of "We're All in This Together." What is it with these boys?

Nudge came out a bit later, her normally wildly curly hair straightened as to not arouse much more suspicion. She sighed unhappily at the movie being over, which Angel quickly amended by hitting the play button again. Somehow, I think Gazzy and I were the only disappointed ones.

And so begins another long period of waiting.

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**A/N: Once again, I am so, so sorry for making you guys wait so long for this chapter. Was it worth it? I sure hope so. I have spent, literally, hours and hours working out this chapter. I even re-wrote the dialogue quite a few times.**

**At first, it was school, and track, and MyLifeIsAverage making me procrastinate/unable to write. Then, the summer hit, and I hit a wall. I got kinda depressed. I'd rather not go into it, but, in the end, it was your guys' amazing and supportive reviews that made me perk up, and get myself to write this chapter. I can't tell you how shocked I was to find out that someone had added me to a community. I pretty much ran around my house, nearly knocking over everything, including our new dog (Perseus Jackson insert-my-last-name-here) in the process.**

**In addition, thanks to Iggy4ever for my 300th review from quite a bit ago, and to SeaTrollTakeover for that amazing 400th freaking review. I am so honored that people are enjoying what I consider to be awful. You guys seriously got me through a rough patch. So, thanks : )**

**R&R? (I will try to get the next chapter up by _definitely_ Saturday, as long as work doesn't get in the way. Hold me to that, please. Or, possibly by Friday, with encouragement ;D) Also, please tell me - was this chapter worth the wait? Was it clear? Anything that needs explanation, further in-depthness?**

**Oh, and is anyone watching A Very Potter Sequel on the 22nd? I cannot wait :D (Sorry for the obnoxiously long A/N)**


	19. Escape

**A/N: So, it's three days late. Hey, it's better than being three months late. Whoops :D**

**By the way, thanks so much to all of those who reviewed! I'm so very glad that you've remained faithful to me. Hopefully this'll prove that I'm sticking with this 'til the end.**

**Disclaimer: If you recognize it, then I don't own it.**

**ALSO: Points to whoever catches the Doctor Who reference! It's not exactly subtle, though. Note: It's a season 5 reference.**

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**Max POV**

"So, to play panic, we will stack these cards and put them in the center of the room. We'll then divide into two teams, and sit opposite from the other team. Then, we'll set Fang's watch for one minute, and have the first player from Team One draw a card from the pile and give clues to the word on the card to their teammates before the timer ends the play.

"So, if the word is "blink", the team member might say, "What you do if dust gets in your eyes?" If the teammates guess right before time is up, then they get a point, but if they don't guess before time is up, the other team gets the point. At the end, we'll add up the points to see who wins.

"Ready, guys? Do you understand the concept of the game?" Ella's question was met with a series of Uh-huhs, a few Yeahs, and one silent nod. "Alright, then! Boys against girls. I can only referee, though, since I wrote on the cards."

In order to waste time and to keep our minds off of the impending escape, not to mention my mom's absence, Ella suggested we play a game she calls Panic. So, while we were watching High School Musical for the umpteenth time, Ella began to write a variety of words on index cards that she found in the kitchen drawer. When the movie was over she had explained the rules.

"And _no powers_," I warned Angel, as she grinned sheepishly.

Angel placed the stack in the middle of the room and grabbed a card. "I guess I'll go first, then," she said. Fang nodded and started his watch.

"It's, um, something we eat off of!"

"A table!" Nudge said ecstatically. Angel shook her head.

"No, what goes on top of the table. Oh, I know! It's the size of Max's eyes whenever Fang is in his bathing suit!"

"Dinner plates!" yelled Nudge, while everyone broke out into laughter. Angel nodded her head yes, and skipped back to our side of the room, me glaring at her the entire time.

"They do not," I denied, while everyone else snickered. Fang's face remained stoic, but I saw a glimmer of amusement in his eyes.

"Surrre, Max, whatever you say," Ella said, grinning from ear to ear. "Now, who's next?"

Iggy elbowed Fang forward. "You go. At least you'll get it over with, Man-of-Many-Words." Fang shrugged, stepped forward and grabbed a card from the pile. Ella then started Fang's watch after he handed it to her, and he began.

"…Are you serious?" I heard him mutter, and if I didn't know better, I'd say that Fang was flustered. "Alright, so, it's a thing. And that thing does, err-"

Iggy did a smacked his face with his palm. "C'mon, Fang. I know you don't like to talk much, but this is ridiculous."

Ella snuck a peak of what the word was and grinned. "Nice. I was hoping one of you would get this one."

"Give us a hint, Fang! Spit it out," the Gasman said, agitated that their time was running out.

()()()()()()()()()

**Fang POV**

Crap. How am I going to do this? I stared down at the index card, with the word on it glaring up at me. Underneath of my mostly-cool exterior, I was slowly losing it.

"Fang, c'mon already," Iggy said impatiently. Feeling more and more flustered, I blurted out the one thing I was trying most not to say.

"It's something Max always needs!" Shoot me now.

The room got fairly silent after that. "Um, a chill pill?" Iggy queried, his eyebrows raised. "A proctologist to get that stick out of her butt? A swift kick in said butt? Cooking lesso-"

"Alright, Iggy, we get it," Max cut in, irritably. Uh-oh. "Time, Ella?"

"Ten seconds," Ella said, giggling at my outburst.

"A hair tie?" Gazzy added in innocently. "Her Voice?" I shook my head in defeat.

"And… time," Ella said, stopping the watch. "So, Fang, what was the word?" I shot a glare at Ella. "Well?"

It's a good thing I have my emotions in check most of the time, or else I may have gone red.

"Bra," I muttered, glowering at the card in question. I was met by a stunned silence, with Ella stifling her giggles.

Abruptly, the silence was shattered.

"Dude," Iggy said, leaning against the wall he was standing against, tears beginning to form in his eyes. "You're almost as bad as me," he managed to get out between laughs.

"What the hell, Fang?" an angry Max shouted over all of the laughter filling the room. And I reiterate, crap.

I felt a hard punch land on my shoulder, and looked to see Max glaring at me, her fist still raised. I could detect a hint of laughter in them, though, one that few would be able to notice. She then stalked over to Iggy, punching him on the same shoulder she punched me, saying something that looked like "Cooking lessons?"

Once the lively laughing died down (helped by the defiant stares I was giving everyone), we went back to the game. I still felt like there was going to be some sort of retaliation from Max, though.

()()()()()()()()()

**Max POV**

After Fang's word vomit, the rest of the game was fairly uneventful. Sure, Iggy caused some trouble ("What does Lady Gaga have?" "A peni-?" "_Iggy!_" I turned out the answer was a poker face. Nice, Gazzy.), but it wasn't too awful.

I'm still mentally rolling my eyes every once in a while at Fang's outburst, though. I mean, really. What was he thinking? I swear hormones are going to be the death of us all. I mean, yeah I wear one that's modified a bit to accommodate my wings, but is it that obvious? Apparently Fang thinks so.

"Anyone want to play cards? I found these really awesome ones that are all red on the back," Nudge said, as she pulled out a deck of playing cards from the drawer in one of the end tables.

"Sure," I said, shrugging. Everyone else agreed, except for Iggy and Gazzy.

"We have some work to do. Come on, Gaz. You said you found some peanuts in the kitchen earlier, and I think I smelled some sawdust in the basement," Iggy said, going into the kitchen in the most inconspicuous way possible. You know what? I don't want to know.

"Have fun, though. And make sure Max and Fang don't try to play their own game of strip poker," Iggy said, snickering. I picked up a book from a basket and chucked it at him, but not before Iggy ducked into the kitchen.

"Alright," Ella said, grabbing the deck of cards and shuffling them swiftly. "How about a good game of War?"

()()()()()()()

"Alright, guys, time for bed," I said, standing up and stretching after playing various card games for quite a while. I glanced at the camera, extremely glad that they thought there was no need to send a new M-Geek, seeing as the original one had finished the job.

"Okay, Max. Ooh, maybe I can wear those pajamas you were telling me about, Ella! The blue ones with ducks on them, you know? Could I borrow them, please?" Nudge said swiftly, glancing at the camera as well.

_Max, what time should Nudge set it off? She wants to know, and the others want to know what time to leave._

I peeked at the digital clock on the cable box, and saw it was 11:30. _How's 12:30?_

Angel paused before replying. _12:30's good! I'll let everyone know. Thanks Max! And don't worry, your mom will be okay. Oh, and Fang's eyes go wide too when he sees you – bathing suit or not._

I internally sighed. _Thanks, Ange._

Walking out of the living room, I headed into the kitchen where Iggy and Gazzy were doing something involving wires from the M-Geek, peanuts, sawdust, and various other materials, while at the long table.

"Sorry to ruin your fun, but it's time for bed."

Iggy nodded knowingly. "Yep. Just let us finish this. We'll be five minutes." I turned to leave when I heard him stage-whisper to the Gasman, "Does she still have all her clothes on, or did she win poker against Fang?"

I shook my head in disgust. "You're corrupting Gazzy, you know," I yelled over my shoulder, leaving once I found nothing within arm's reach to chuck at him.

Heading up the steps, I saw that the rest of the Flock's lights were already out. I realized with a slight pang that Angel didn't need me to tuck her in anymore, fake or not. It was pretty heartbreaking – a girl who is pretty much my baby, growing up.

Once in my room, I went to put on a T-shirt that I nicked from my mom's room. I had my original shirt half-way off when I realized Fang was sitting on my bed.

I gave a tiny yelp as I put my shirt back down, and glared at Fang. "And when were you planning to announce that you were here?" I said, as I punched him for the second time that day. I don't give those wussy slaps; the real damage is from your knuckle, and mine from earlier had already made quite a bruise on his shoulder. Looks like there's going to be another, then.

"What is up with you today?" He was lucky that I wasn't angrier. The only reason I'm not is because I'm saving up all of this excess anger for Mr. Chu. That, and I can't hurt my second best fighter too much. We'll need him.

I sat down on the bed as a side of Fang's mouth quirked up for a second. "Hormones? Solar flares? Bow ties? Fezzes?" I stopped him with a quick peck on the lips.

"Looks like your word vomit still isn't cured from earlier. Hanging around with Nudge too much, hmm?" My "hmm" became muffled as well when Fang pressed his lips to mine once again. I brought my arms around his neck, and his went around my waist.

We were kissing enthusiastically for quite a bit, trying to bring our bodies as close to each other as possible, relishing the fact that we finally had some alone time. That is, until the Gasman ruined the moment.

"Eww. I can hear you guys in there. Fang, I like Max's face. There's no need to suck it off. I'm going to bed – I don't want to hear this any longer." Fang and I broke apart abruptly, and I could feel my face growing red. It grew even redder when I remembered that there was a camera in here, invading my personal space.

I touched my forehead to Fang's. "You better go," I murmured, glancing at the clock on my nightstand.

"Right," he said, standing up. "Night," Fang called over his shoulder. Looks like Mr. Tall, Dark, and Feathery is back.

After finally getting changed in the bathroom, I went to "bed." In reality, I was laying in bed on my stomach, with millions of thoughts racing through my head.

How were we going to get to my mom? We don't even know where she's being held this time. What are we going to do about Ella – she's light, but we definitely couldn't carry her for extended periods of time. Why can't Angel read both of my parents' minds?

Ugh. It felt like I was going to get another one of those head-exploding headaches. Glimpsing at the digital clock, I saw it was 12:29. Perfect.

Sure enough, as soon as the clock hit 12:30, I heard a tiny _snick_ come from the camera in the corner of my room. I jumped out of the bed and hurriedly threw on my original day clothes. We had to be quick – who knows how long it will keep the scientists fooled, if at all.

Once changed, I headed out of my room and ran down the steps. I was the first in the living room, and so far, nothing seemed to be amiss.

The Flock and Ella soon came down the steps after me, mostly looking how I felt – absolutely nervous.

"Everybody ready?" I asked in my most leaderly voice. It was time to start making a mental plan – I might not know the outcome of it yet, but it'll be good.

"Alright troops. Let's head out," I said, stepping towards the front door. I reached out tentatively, and found with relief that upon touching the doorknob no shock came up to meet me.

"Onwards!" With that, I swung the door open and left the beach house, possibly for the last time.

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**Questions, Comments, or Concerns? Voice 'em in a review! I hope you all enjoyed this chapter - it was a lot easier to write than last. I'll try to update before another week is up :D**

**R&R?**


	20. Some Unlikely Help

**A/N: Well, it's here! A few days late, but here nonetheless. Thanks so much to all of you guys for the support in wanting me to continue :D**

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**Max POV**

The Flock, Ella, and I quietly stepped into the soft glow emanating from the streetlight. I glanced behind me and saw that there was no disturbance in the house. Breathing a sigh of relief, I realized that we were safe. At the moment.

Well, it was time to be a kick-butt leader again. And that meant to BS the next few decisions.

"Right, so, since Ella can't fly, we're going have to take Mom's car." The Flock groaned, knowing that my driving skills were about as good as Justin Bieber's singing.

"Nudge, did you grab the keys?" Iggy asked. She froze, and he turned towards her slowly. "You did grab the keys like I told you to, right?"

Nudge bit her lip. "I'm sososososo_so_ sorry, I was just worried about Dr. M and making it out of the house in the first place that I forgot to grab them before I went to bed and just grabbed my bag when we ran out the door and-" she cut herself off, tears filling her eyes. "I'm sorry guys."

Okay, Max, leader time. Pushing my agitation down, I leaned over and rubbed Nudge's back, in between her wings. "It's okay, one of us can just sneak back inside before the timer goes-" The rest of my sentence was drowned out by a loud hiss and popping noise coming from the house. As we turned in horrified unison, we saw that the inside of the house was being filled up with a thick, poisonous looking gas.

"Well, there goes that security deposit," Gazzy muttered, looking none too happy.

Dread filled my stomach. I turned back towards the Flock and Ella, their horrified eyes transfixed on the house. I needed to think of something, fast.

"Well, I guess they found out that we're not here. We need to get a move on. Fast. Who knows how quickly the M-Geeks could get here?"

As I finished my sentence, I saw out of the corner of my eye a car zooming around the street corner, right towards where we were standing.

Life just hates me, doesn't it?

()()()()()()()()

As the car passed under a streetlight, my raptor vision discerned that it was not, in fact, an armored vehicle, alleviating the growing knot in my stomach just a bit. The car was a sleek yellow sports car, but it was still speeding straight towards us.

The car pulled up to a screech in front of us, it's tinted windows giving us no clue as to who or what could be inside. The Flock tensed up, waiting for a fight.

The passenger window slowly rolled down, and I readied myself for a barrage of bullets coming at us. However, the bullets never came.

"Oh, look Trey, it's that babe we keep seeing!" Chad said, leaning out the window to get a better look at our group, oblivious as to the state of the house behind us. He glanced up at my face. "It must be fate that we saw you. We're heading off to a rave down the road. Wanna come?"

Trey joined in. "We'll even let the two girls from the store earlier today come, if they want." In my peripherals, I saw Nudge and Ella swoon slightly.

"Listen," I barked at them. "I don't have time for this. We're having a bit of an emergency right now, if you haven't noticed." I gestured to the house behind me, and their eyes widened. "So, unless you have something useful to contribute, I'd greatly appreciate it if you left. Now." Fang strode up beside me to add to my threat.

"Do you need a ride somewhere?" Trey said eagerly, obviously wanting to be part of the action. "We can give you one. Hey, maybe we could stop at the party while we're at i-"

"In case you haven't noticed," Angel said, "there's seven of us. I don't think we'll all fit in the 3 extra seats you have in the back of your car."

"Well, there's an SUV at the house, if the Camaro doesn't cut it. We can give some of you a ride there, while the ones of you with wings can fly there," Chad said, a gleam appearing in his eyes as well.

This was a tough decision. I didn't want to break into Mom's car if we didn't have to, and in order for us to hotwire and use it we would need to. Plus, the broken window wouldn't protect any of us from bullets or projectiles. On the other hand, although these two idiots seem harmless, you can never be too sure who to trust. But if they were game to loan us a car which could help get Mom back, and since we need somewhere to figure out how to find her…

I sighed. "Fine. Ella, Fang, you get in the car with Trey and Chad. The rest of us will follow you guys to the house. And if any funny business goes on," I said, directing this last threat to Trey and Chad, "it may be the last thing you do." They paled, but they weren't going to give in so easily.

"Ah ah ah. If we're going to be giving you guys a ride, you're coming with us, babe," Chad said, his eyes gleaming devilishly. Anger bubbled up within me.

_Angel_, I thought, knowing she'd be listening in, _can you mind control them to just give Fang and Ella ride? Or, better yet, just relinquishing the car and making them walk to that darn party of theirs?_

_Sure, Max_, Angel said, projecting her thoughts to me. _Just a second… Um, Max? I kind of can't._

_What do you mean, you can't? _I thought in disbelief.

_As funny and awful as this sounds, they don't have enough brains in order for me to control anything. Sorry. I can still read their minds, though, and they seem pretty harmless._

I gaped a bit at the boys, internally face-palming.

"Fine, I'll come," I said, and the boys whooped. "But the threat still stands. Come on, Fang, Ella." I opened the door, but the boys interrupted once again.

"No boyfriend or any unneeded people, either," Trey said, giving a saccharine smile. "Sorry. The testosterone levels would be too high." Anger rose yet again in my stomach, and it took much of my willpower to not knock them out, right then and there. We didn't need a stolen car and unconscious bodies on our hands, though. I gave Fang a quick peck on his cheek before sliding into the car.

"Sorry, Fang," I grumbled as Ella slid into the car. Fang's face remained impassive, but I could tell that he was not happy by the dangerous flash of anger that passed over his eyes. Leaning across Ella, I addressed the whole Flock. "Be good. Don't fight. Make sure you follow us to the house. _Don't lose sight of us_."

With that, I swung the door closed as Trey revved the engine and took off like a bullet, making an illegal U-turn at the end of the street and speeding off towards what was hopefully their beach house. I saw the Flock go U and A on Fang's command, and I internally hoped that nothing would go wrong.

"Won't your parents wonder what's going on?" Ella inquired, gripping the seat to keep herself steady in the constantly shifting car.

Chad snorted as he turned around. "Nah. They aren't even down this week. Trey's parents have business at home, and mine are off in the Alps or something. So, what was your emergency? Your house looked like hell hit it."

"Long story short, our mom got kidnapped, _again_, by a guy who wants us to stop interfering and was replaced by a shape-shifting robot set out to destroy us. We need to go find her now before anything bad happens," I said dismissively. Trey glanced back at us in his rearview mirror, his eyes filled with disbelief. Chad's jaw went slightly slack. I shrugged. "You don't have to believe it. Why _are_ you helping us, anyway?"

Chad grinned slimily. "Well, we were hoping that there might be something in it for us," he purred. "You know, you might owe us in sexual favors or somethi-" I punched him on the arm, hard. He winced. "We'll see. I know you're just playing hard to get. Besides, there's a wild side to every innocent face."

I rolled my eyes irritably. "Yea, and that wild side is two percent bird. I mean, I won't crap on your car, but I do have talons," I said, waving my hand in front of Chad's face.

Trey grinned at me in the rearview mirror. "Oh, so that's what you are? Two percent bird? Your boyfriend's wings were pretty dark. I bet he's like part bat or something. And, you know, bats have the highest rate of homosexuality of all mammals."

Chad and Trey laughed together and fist bumped as I scowled. Ella merely grinned mischievously. "Oh, that would be such a problem if birds were mammals! Good thing they're not." I smiled back at Ella, laughing while Trey and Chad frowned, their burn having been counteracted.

"We knew that," Trey said, trying to cover his tracks. "Good job picking up our little test of knowledge, um, err… What _are_ your names?" My eyes widened slightly. They didn't even know our names? How stupid could they be, picking up two girls whose names they don't even know?

"I'm Ella," she said, batting her eyelashes coquettishly. "I'm the only one without wings."

"And I'm Max. Maximum Ride," I said, my attempt at being imposing ruined by Trey and Chad's laughter. "What?"

"Maximum Ride, huh? Is there a reason you're named that, hm? I'd like to find out why," Trey said, wiggling his eyebrows at me in the rearview mirror. I felt my face go slightly red. Oh. This wasn't the first time something like this had happened. Once Iggy learned some of his more pervish knowledge, he had brought up the double meaning of my name to me. He had to walk bowlegged for a week.

As I opened my mouth to shoot back an angry retort, the car screeched to a halt.

"We're here," Trey said, hopping out of the car and striding up the steps of an expensive looking beach house. I studied the house for a moment as I was getting out of the car, and deemed it mostly safe. Mostly. There were underwear and bras hanging off of several bushes, as well as toilet paper and cans and bottles of alcohol in various places.

The Flock landed next to me as I raised my eyebrows at Chad, who was watching me survey the house. He shrugged. "Remember that party we invited you to? Yea, it was massive. A cop told us it was the most epic party they'd ever crashed."

I shook my head as I walked up the pathway to the front door, being careful to step over any undesirable items. I looked back at the Flock, who looked no worse for wear. My eyes caught Fang's. _You good?_ they asked me. I nodded in return, and the tension in Fang's shoulders lessened slightly.

We walked into a brightly lit entrance hall, littered even more-so than the front yard. I followed Chad down the hall into the kitchen, which was actually semi-clean, the stainless steel appliances gleaming in the dull kitchen light.

Fang caught my hand as I walked into the room, squeezing it gently. I was grateful that he was still here, supporting me.

"Well, where is this SUV you told us about?" I said, looking down at the two boys who were lounging on the stools next to the kitchen's island.

Chad smirked. "We want to ask you just a few questions before we let you borrow it," he said, glancing at Trey, who shook his head in agreement.

"How did he end up with _her_?" Trey said, pointing his fingers at the two of us as the rest of the Flock trickled into the kitchen. I felt Fang glaring at them.

"Listen, if you're not going to help us," I said hotly, "We can just leave."

"No, no," Chad said quickly, sitting up in the chair. "Fine, in all seriousness, what the hell happened to you guys? Two percent bird? That's almost crazier than the thought of Edward Cullen being straight."

Exhaling, I went into as quick a life story as I possibly could. I don't think Trey and Chad could totally comprehend everything that I said, but they got the gist.

"Dudeee, that's nucking futs!" Trey exclaimed. "So, Maxie, you can fly faster than the others?"

I nodded. "One, don't call me Maxie. Two, yea, basically I've got warp drive, so I'm a lot faster."

"Oh, that's something we have in common," Trey replied. "We can both do things really fast. Do you want me to show you the upstairs? I -" A glare from Fang stopped him from finishing his sentence.

"Right, so… The SUV? I really want to see it! We've only driven in stolen SUVs before, and they weren't even pretty. It was like an ugly model, and the gears were so old and needed a good oiling." Nudge blathered excitedly. She loved cars, oddly enough. It didn't exactly fit her personality, but that's why I love Nudge – you never know what's next with her.

The two boys got up from their chairs and took us through a door off the side of the kitchen and into the garage. There were several cars in the garage, one being a large silver SUV, with conveniently tinted windows. Perfect.

"Ooh," Nudge breathed out, for once speechless as she ran over to inspect the car. She popped the hood and began to study the inside carefully.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Angel yawn and lean more onto Iggy's leg, who patted her hair. Glancing at Fang's watch, I saw that it was around two in the morning. Crap. We had to get going – we couldn't stop now. Who knows what could happen to my mom in the time that we rest?

"Well, thanks so much for helping us," I said, turning to Trey and Chad, "but we really have to go help my mom. Come on Flock, Ella, get into the car." As I turned, someone caught my elbow.

"No," Trey said, his eyes glinting dangerously, "you're not going anywhere without us. You already dragged us into the action, and we want to see it through."

I gulped and wrenched my elbow out of his grasp. "It's too dangerous for you guys. Besides, you'll just be a liability. No."

Chad's hands clenched at his sides. "I guess you just won't be getting our ca-" He never got to finish his sentence, as right then Fang and Iggy snuck up behind him and Trey and delivered swift blows to their heads.

I stared at their bodies on the ground. "So much for not stealing any cars. C'mon, Fang, let's bring their bodies into the house so they won't at least freeze out here." Fang and I each took a body and dragged them into the house while the Flock continued to talk as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened. Which, I guess it didn't.

()()()()()()

Fang and I deposited their bodies on a living room couch that smelled faintly of urine.

I turned to Fang, biting my lip. "What are we going to do now? I don't even know where we're supposed to go, and we have Ella to look after now-" Fang cut me off with a kiss. My shoulders relaxed as I put my arms around his neck, drawing him closer. Our bodies melded together as we kissed away chaos of the last few insane hours.

"Sorry," Fang said when we broke apart, too soon for my liking. "The way those two look at you, like you're a piece of meat. It's disgusting."

I smirked at him, in that infuriating way he always does. "Well, at least it helps you to remember that I wear the pants in this relationship."

"Yea, but even though you wear the pants, I control the zipper," Fang replied, replicating my smirk before striding out of the room with his hands in his pockets, knowing he had won that battle of wits.

I glared at his retreating back, my mouth slightly agape. Throwing a blanket over Trey and Chad, who had cuddled together in their unconscious state (oh, how I wished to be there when they wake up), I went back towards the garage, grabbing both the car keys labeled "SUV" and a few snacks for the road.

When I hopped into the driver's seat of the SUV, I noticed that the car had gotten silent.

"Max," Iggy started tentatively, "are you sure it's a good idea for you to drive?"

Turning around in the car seat, I glowered at the Flock members and Ella, who all looked nervous at my being in the front seat. "Would you prefer to fly and be potentially vulnerable to attacks?" They shifted uncomfortably in their seats. "Right. So, Fang, how about looking up the headquarters of Mr. Chu's corporation?" I said, making a quick decision that it would be the best place to look for Mom.

Fang, who was sitting in the passenger seat, brought his laptop out. After checking that the house had wireless internet (our own beach house didn't, so Fang hadn't been able to blog while we were there or go on the internet, a nice change), Fang was able to get online and look the address.

"It's in Virginia," he said after clacking away at his keyboard for a moment. Good, that wasn't too far away from North Carolina. Fang typed the address into the car's built-in GPS, and it immediately brought up directions.

Putting the key into the ignition, I turned the key and heard the engine rev to life. After looking at the dashboard light up, I pushed a button with a garage symbol on it, and lo and behold, the garage door opened.

"Right," I said, putting the car in reverse. "Let's get going." With that, I backed up steadily into the street, hearing the Flock catch their collective breaths, and shifted to drive. Fang gave me a reassuring look, and I accelerated forward with a jerk.

"Oh God," Iggy moaned, "This is going to be worse than the time Nudge thought the ones in H1N1 were i's and she freaked out because she thought she'd have to get 'hiney' shots. Ouch," he said as I heard a solid _thump_ of knuckles against flesh.

I resisted hitting my head against the steering wheel. This _was_ going to be worse.

* * *

**Right, so next chapter I think I'll do a list of the reviewers since the last time. The chapter probably won't come until Saturday, as I have midterms this week (yippee), but if I get the catalyst from reviews -winkwink- Thanks so much to everyone for sticking it out with me!**

**Tengo que estudiar para el examen de la clase de espanol. Es mi examen primer, y necesito que estudiar mucho. Entonces, tengo ingles, religion, matematicas, y chemistria. Que divertida! (I have to study for the exam of Spanish class. It's my first exam, and I need to study much. Then, I have English, religion, math, and chemistry. What fun! XD)**

**Review, por favor (please?) Muchas gracias!**


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